Excerpts
WASHINGTON
(AP) — 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.
Roth's report said fingerprints are missing from federal databases for
as many as 315,000 immigrants with final deportation orders or who are
fugitive criminals. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not reviewed
about 148,000 of those immigrants' files to add fingerprints to the
digital record.
At
least three of the immigrants-turned-citizens were able to acquire
aviation or transportation worker credentials, granting them access to
secure areas in airports or maritime facilities and vessels. Their
credentials were revoked after they were identified as having been
granted citizenship improperly, Roth said in his report.
A fourth person is now a law enforcement officer.
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