Hundreds of thousands, “possibly millions,” of immigrants passed through the immigration system without a proper background check, whistle-blowers have told Congress.
The reason for the serious security lapse: Staffers apparently weren’t trained to hit a single computer keystroke.
Sultan Farakhan, a former adjudicator at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, has told members of Congress that Citizenship and Immigration officials didn’t discover their error until the day after British authorities uncovered a plot to blow up airliners traveling to America.
Farakhan told The Examiner that neither he nor his colleagues knew they were supposed to strike a single key on the keyboard to check an immigrant’s name and birth date against a database of alleged criminals and terrorists.
“I asked my supervisor, ‘Do you know what this means?’ And she said, ‘Yes.’ It’s very scary,” Farakhan said.
Others in Farakhan’s office have given a similar account, Congressional sources say. Citizenship and Immigration spokesman Christopher Bentley denied Farakhan’s allegations. He said his agency “does not grant an immigration benefit until national security background checks are resolved.”
Sources familiar with Farakhan’s allegations say that the name checks were part of a computerized process. If an immigrant’s name matched up to someone on the criminal and terrorist database, a message appeared on the official’s screen saying, “Strike ‘F14’ for more information.” The F14 button called up a new screen, detailing the immigrant’s link to the criminal and terrorist database.
Occasionally, that message was highlighted. Sources say that Congress has been told that officials were only striking F14 if the message was highlighted.
Asked how many immigrants passed through the system without a full background check, Farakhan said, “Possibly millions.”
Farakhan said he was complaining to Congress even before learning of the keystroke problem. He said that workers in his office were pressured to focus on clearing their backlogs, not on rooting out dangerous applicants.
“[Immigration officials] will tell you that security comes first and numbers come second,” Farakhan said. “But you only get promoted based on the numbers you process.” Farakhan said that his supervisors did not renew his service contract because of his whistle-blowing.
Bentley, the Citizenship and Immigration spokesman, said the whistle-blowers’ allegations are “absolutely, totally false.” They are being made, he said, by people “who have very little knowledge about what should be happening.”
When an employee gets a “hit” on the computer, the file automatically is transferred to the Fraud Detection and National Security at Citizenship and Immigration headquarters in Washington, Bentley said.
“It’s automatic,” Bentley said. “When it’s flagged, it’s unmistakable. There’s no confusion.”
The agency’s security experts in D.C. hit the key as part of their background investigation, Bentley said. Once the case is fully resolved, the case is transferred back to adjudicators such as Farakhan.
But some congressmen aren’t so sure. Ed Royce, R-Calif., said the FBI told him last week that the Citizenship and Immigration’s “security checks were weak.” Royce said he’s planning on calling hearings on the matter.
