More than 800 immigrants mistakenly granted citizenship
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services mistakenly granted citizenship to at least 858 immigrants from countries of concern to national security or with high rates of immigration fraud who had pending deportation orders according to an audit released on Monday. Apparently, the immigrants used different names and or birthdays to apply for citizenship with USCIS and the discrepancies slipped went unnoticed because the immigrants did not have fingerprints in the system.
The Inspector General said that the immigrants granted citizenship were all from “special interest” countries, meaning they posed a national security concern for the U.S and/ or its neighboring countries. The report, however, did not name which countries. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the findings reflect what has long been a problem for immigration officials — old paper-based records containing fingerprint information that can’t be searched electronically. Immigration officials are in the process of uploading these files and that officials will review “every file” identified as a case of possible fraud.
Roth’s report said federal prosecutors have accepted two criminal cases that led to the immigrants being stripped of their citizenship. But prosecutors declined another 26 cases. ICE is investigating 32 other cases after closing 90 investigations.