Homeland Insecurity

I thought that the recent story that at least 858 recent immigrants to the United States were mistakenly granted citizenship was not very reassuring. Oops. I guess that their fingerprints were missing from the federal databases.

These particular emigres were all from “special interest countries” — those that present a national security concern for the United States — or neighboring countries with high rates of immigration fraud. The report did not identify those specific countries.

The U.S. government has 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 internal Homeland Security audit released Monday.
The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general found that the immigrants used different names or birthdates to apply for citizenship with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and such discrepancies weren’t caught because their fingerprints were missing from government databases.

I love this part:

DHS said in an emailed statement that an initial review of these cases suggest that some of the individuals may have ultimately qualified for citizenship, and that the lack of digital fingerprint records does not necessarily mean they committed fraud.

It was estimated last year that one of three Syrian refugees in Germany is using false documents and is actually from some other country. You suppose that it is any different here?

The anger and fear of the average American let alone Donald Trump supporter after Boston, San Bernardino, Miami and now New Jersey is understandable. Naturalized citizens expressing their gratitude in the most horrible of ways. It is hard if not impossible to have faith in our government's ability to vet immigrants and refugees properly, let alone protect us from domestic terrorism.

Even a father calling the FBI and telling them that his son is traveling to Pakistan and associating with terrorists isn't enough to raise alarm bells. How many more tragedies will have to occur before the government starts taking its job more seriously and starts acting more competently?