The Bush administration is to be commended for its aggressive campaign against radical Islamofascists abroad. But the war on terrorism has two fronts, and there is compelling evidence that the federal government has not been nearly as diligent on the domestic side. Thanks to the courage and determination of our law enforcement community, many potential attacks have been thwarted, but people are uneasy during this week that includes the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11.
A recent AP-Ipsos poll found that more than half of the residents of New York and Washington are afraid they will be attacked again. Such fears are hardly unwarranted. The federal government’s lackadaisical approach to border control allows more unlawful immigrants to enter our country than law enforcement officers can hope to catch.
Meanwhile, federal officials have been handing out legal immigration benefits without performing the due diligence expected by the American public, which is essential to national security. In order to accommodate their “customers,” employees of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services routinely waive fingerprint requirements, approving applications without checking them against the terrorist watch list, even neglecting to compare current photographs of those seeking political asylum with originals stored in the Image Storage and Retrieval System.
A Dec. 3, 2004, internal memo chided USCIS staff for leaving classified information — budget and payroll reports, blank arrival records and immigration forms, even official “Approved” date stamps — unsecured while moving its Arlington office. Investigators found enough blank forms lying around to enable any terrorists who picked them up to set up their very own immigration office.
Michael Maxwell, USCIS’s former Director of Security, says the agency also stonewalled FBI requests for help in investigating foreign espionage cases, a disturbing turn of events he personally brought to the attention of senior administration officials, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Emilio Gonzalez, who was confirmed as director of USCIS in December 2005, acknowledged to reporters in March 2006 that the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General was looking into allegations that high-level employees destroyed files, were bribed to skip fingerprint checks and issued duplicate green cards, but downplayed Maxwell’s charges. “I do not think that those allegations are correct,” he told the AP. Since then, however, only four USCIS employees have been arrested, including former deputy district director Robert Schofield on charges he accepted bribes to falsify naturalization papers. But 528 internal affairs cases involving equally serious criminal allegations still remain “in limbo,” Maxwell told The Examiner.
March was also when Gonzalez assured Congress that the White House’s guest worker program would not compromise national security. Maxwell — who was present at the first two high-level meetings of the Temporary Worker Group — vehemently disagrees, pointing to USCIS’ failures with the current system. The agency employs an automatic adjudication system that provides foreign nationals with immigration documents so they never have to see an actual immigration officer. “Using a laptop in China, you could remotely approve your own green card and work permit, bypassing every background check. It’s being done every day,” he told us.
Americans know enough to lock their doors to keep out unwelcome intruders, but the bureaucrats currently running the nation’s immigration system apparently do not. Dysfunction within USCIS rivals the well-documented ineptitude of its sister agency, FEMA, and the stakes are equally high. The Bush administration is literally gambling with all of our lives each day it continues to tolerate such institutional failure.
