Islamist Illegals Were Made Citizens Instead of Deported

Monday morning, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General released a report that found that people from “special interest countries” who had been ordered to be deported or removed from American soil due to suspected terrorist ties were allowed to stay in the country.

Not only that, they were granted U.S. citizenship.

And it wasn’t just a small handful of people. More than 800 people who were granted citizenship by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did so under aliases because “neither the digital fingerprint repository at DHS nor the repository at the Federal Bureau of Investigation contains all old fingerprint records of individuals previously deported.”

In the new report, the OIG found that the records were missing from the DHS digital repository because paper-based fingerprint cards used prior to 2008 were not consistently digitized and uploaded into the repository. The FBI repository is also missing records because, in the past, fingerprints collected during immigration enforcement encounters were not always forwarded to the FBI.

“Currently, about 148,000 fingerprint records of aliens from special interest countries who had final deportation orders or who are criminals or fugitives have yet to be digitized,” the OIG/DHS reported to Congress. “Incomplete digital fingerprint records hinder adjudicators’ full review of naturalization applications and may lead to USCIS granting the rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship to those who may be ineligible or may be trying to obtain citizenship fraudulently.

At least three who became naturalized citizens after having been deported under a different identity had also obtained security credentials to conduct sensitive work at commercial airports or maritime facilities and vessels. Those credentials have since been revoked.

DHS officials also have failed to adequately investigate those who were allowed to gain citizenship to determine if they should be denaturalized or criminal prosecuted.

“This situation created opportunities for individuals to gain the rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship through fraud,” Inspector General John Roth. “To prevent fraud and ensure thorough review of naturalization applications, USCIS needs access to these fingerprint records. DHS agreed with our recommendations. ICE has plans to digitize and upload all available fingerprint records, and the Department has told us it plans to review the eligibility of each naturalized citizen whose fingerprint records reveal a deportation order under a different identity. We will continue to monitor DHS’s progress.”