{"id":5796,"date":"2014-01-29T12:15:35","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T17:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=5796"},"modified":"2018-12-28T15:15:03","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T20:15:03","slug":"six-hundred-sixty-thousand-flawed-background-checks-dont-shake-jeh-johnsons-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2014\/01\/29\/six-hundred-sixty-thousand-flawed-background-checks-dont-shake-jeh-johnsons-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Hundred Sixty Thousand Flawed Background Checks Don\u2019t Shake Jeh Johnson\u2019s Confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JehLast Friday, at the U.S. Conference of Mayors<\/a> , Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson claimed that President Obama\u2019s version of \u201cimmigration reform,\u201d that is, amnesty, increased immigration, and promises of future enforcement, is crucial to homeland security. If such promises to secure the border were not just a pretense, the security aspects of an immigration bill might have some positive effect. But on Friday, Johnson claimed that the process of amnesty itself, not just the proposed enforcement measures, would benefit security, because illegal aliens would come \u201cout of the shadows\u201d to become legal.\u00a0 Considering that many acts of terrorism have been carried out by those who were not even \u201cin the shadows,\u201d such as the Tsarnaev brothers<\/a>, the Times Square bomber<\/a>, the shooter at the El Al ticket counter at LAX,<\/a> and the thwarted Fort Dix attackers<\/a>, to name only a few<\/a>, the claim that homeland security could be improved in this way is implausible from every perspective.<\/p>\n

While he was unclear about how precisely bringing illegal aliens \u201cout of the shadows\u201d would enhance homeland security, most likely Johnson meant to imply this process would allow the government to conduct background checks on the illegal population. However, this expectation falls apart upon scrutiny.\u00a0 First, illegal aliens who pose serious security risks through terrorism or crime are unlikely to step forward if they might be caught by doing so.\u00a0 Any investigations during an amnesty would therefore be at the discretion of the illegal alien, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has no idea how many there are. \u00a0Amnesty would only let us find and check those who are willing to be found.<\/p>\n

Secondly, in the event of a large scale amnesty, DHS will not be able to conduct a proper background check on the ones who do come forward to be investigated. Federal agencies are already struggling to conduct sufficient background checks necessary for their ordinary operations. Just two days before Johnson\u2019s comments, the Department of Justice (DOJ) demonstrated that the government is failing this struggle when it joined a lawsuit first filed by whistleblowers against U.S. Investigations Services Inc. (USIS).\u00a0 USIS is the federal government\u2019s largest security background checker, used by many federal agencies, including DHS. In their complaint, the DOJ alleged that USIS, the contractor that checked NSA leaker Edward Snowden and the Navy Yard shooter, had defrauded the government of millions of dollars by filing more than 660,000 flawed background checks<\/a>. USIS allegedly released incomplete background cases to the government and represented them as complete in order to increase their profits<\/a>. How could a government that allowed such an alarmingly massive security breach to occur be trusted to maintain any semblance of integrity over the background check process in the event of an amnesty for millions of illegal aliens?<\/p>\n

Only enforcement will improve homeland security, not legalization of illegal aliens. \u00a0Johnson in his speech defined DHS\u2019s five core missions as: \u201cguarding against terrorism, securing our borders, enforcing our nation\u2019s immigration laws, safeguarding cyberspace and critical infrastructure in partnership with the private sector, and supporting emergency preparedness and response efforts at every level.\u201d \u00a0Though he tried, Johnson cannot make a coherent case that amnestying illegal aliens will serve any one of these five missions.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Johnson also revealed during his speech that he is motivated by considerations other than DHS\u2019s mission. He believes that illegal aliens by their (illegal) presence have \u201cearned the right to be citizens.\u201d DHS could start doing its job of by working on these core missions now<\/i>, without waiting for an amnesty, if the Administration had the will to do so.\u00a0 As important as the core functions of DHS are, Johnson will continue to hold them hostage until he can grant illegal aliens the benefits he believes they have come to deserve by breaking the law. He should stop adding insult to injury by pretending he wants to do so for the benefit of the American people.