Government Insider: “Immigration Vetting System Badly Broken”

A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security found that United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) erroneously naturalized almost 900 ineligible illegal aliens due to database errors. All of these individuals were ordered deported but subsequently applied for citizenship using a fake identity. Nearly all are from countries associated with terrorism and high levels of immigration fraud. Several of these fraudulent citizens have already obtained aviation or transportation credentials.

This information is disturbing but it simply confirms what those in immigration enforcement have known for years — our immigration vetting system is badly broken. But the availability and reliability of vetting information is only one of many systemic problems that plague USCIS: an assembly line mentality, over-politicization, and ineptitude.

Attempting to vet individuals from the most dangerous regions of the world in less than three months is criminally irresponsible.

One of the reasons I resigned from USCIS was dissatisfaction with the agency’s continual focus on approving as many immigration applications as possible, as quickly as possible — often at the expense of national security and public safety.

Read the rest of Matt O’Brien’s guest column in Lifezette.com here.

 

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Matt O'Brien: Matthew J. O’Brien joined the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in 2016. Matt is responsible for managing FAIR’s research activities. He also writes content for FAIR’s website and publications. Over the past twenty years he has held a wide variety of positions focusing on immigration issues, both in government and in the private sector. Immediately prior to joining FAIR Matt served as the Chief of the National Security Division (NSD) within the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), where he was responsible for formulating and implementing procedures to protect the legal immigration system from terrorists, foreign intelligence operatives, and other national security threats. He has also held positions as the Chief of the FDNS Policy and Program Development Unit, as the Chief of the FDNS EB-5 Division, as Assistant Chief Counsel with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, as a Senior Advisor to the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, and as a District Adjudications Officer with the legacy Immigration & Naturalization Service. In addition, Matt has extensive experience as a private bar attorney. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in French from the Johns Hopkins University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Maine School of Law.