Month: October 2013

“At USCIS- Speed Kills”

Hi Gang:
In my latest commentary for CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization), I took on the way that USCIS deals with a tsunami of applications each and every day.  The lack of integrity to the immigration benefits program creates a national security vulnerability that has, on many previous occasions been exploited by terrorists operating in the United States including, but not limited to the 9/11 hijackers.
I took a hard look at an absolutely egregious example where a law firm was involved in a massive fraud scheme that went on for more than a decade, involved more than 25,000 aliens (according to an ICE news release) and the key players faced a few years in jail and nothing was reportedly done to identify, locate or arrest, deport or punish their co-conspirators, the aliens who, presumably, remain in the United States with impunity, to this very day!  (A link to the news release is provided in the CAPS commentary below.)
With all of the talk about the need to provide lawful status and even United States citizenship to unknown millions of illegal aliens- likely tens of millions of illegal aliens, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone in Washington even ask if USCIS could deal with the onslaught of millions of applications that would be filed by these millions of aliens whose true identities, (including countries of citizenship) backgrounds, potential affiliation with criminal or terrorist organizations could not be determined.  We would certainly have no way of knowing why they violated the inspections process or gamed the visa process to get here.  There would be no way to even have them interviewed by personnel at USCIS which is currently not conducting in-person interviews with the DREAMERS (aliens who are being processed under the DACA program I discuss in my article).
As the question goes- “What could possibly go wrong?”
There are so many reasons that Comprehensive Immigration Reform is wrong-headed.  However, no one is asking how in the world would you administer such a humongous program with even a shred of integrity when the 9/11 Commission warned that immigration fraud was a factor in most of the terror cases they examined and continues to be an integral part of the plans of terrorists who have since been arrested in the United States.
The title of my piece today is: 
“At USCIS- Speed Kills”

The document is attached below.  
I strongly recommend you read the entire ICE press release I cited in my article- it demonstrates the abject lack of integrity to the immigration adjudications process and the lack of resolve of the relevant DHS agencies to attempt to create a “Climate of deterrence” against immigration law violations including immigration benefit fraud that I recommended in my testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which I testified this past March 20, 2013.
In my prepared testimony I included the paragraph:
“Law enforcement is at its best when it creates a climate of deterrence to convince those who might be
contemplating violating the law that such an effort is likely to be discovered and that if discovered,
adverse consequences will result for the law violators. Current policies and statements by the
administration, in my view, encourages aspiring illegal aliens around the world to head for the United
States. In effect the starter’s pistol has been fired and for these folks, the finish line to this race is the
border of the United States.”
On Thursday, May 2nd, I was interviewed by Megyn Kelly of Fox News about the immigration component to the Boston Marathon terrorist bombing. Fox News Insider posted a video of the interview with the title:
The point is that immigration benefit fraud and visa fraud have long been acknowledged as representing serious vulnerabilities to national security and to prevent terrorist infiltrations into the United States.
On May 20, 1997 I participated in my first Congressional hearing. That hearing was conducted by the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims and was entitled:

“VISA FRAUD AND IMMIGRATION BENEFITS APPLICATION FRAUD”

The terrorist attacks of 1993 at the CIA and the World Trade Center predication for that hearing.

On July 27, 2006 I testified before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims on the topic:

WHETHER THE ATTEMPTED IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REID-KENNEDY IMMIGRATION BILL WILL RESULT IN AN ADMINISTRATIVE AND NATIONAL SECURITY NIGHTMARE

Here is a link to a video of a segment of my testimony before that hearing provides crystal clarity about my grave concerns about the nexus between any such amnesty program and national security.
What I said back then is just as relevant today.

“Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Background Checks Require a Reality Check”

“Political Asylum: Where Compassion and National Security Intersect”

Immigration is not a single issue but a singular issue that impacts nearly every challenge and threat confronting the United States today!  Simply stated, the immigration laws were enacted to save lives and protect the jobs of American workers.

It is not “Anti-Immigrant” to be Pro-American!

Our armed forces are charged with securing America’s borders externally while the DHS is supposed to secure those same borders from within.  The failures of the DHS to live up to its half of the equation are undermining the efforts, valor and incredible sacrifices of Americas men and women who serve in our military!

If our government’s failures to protect American jobs by securing our nation’s borders and effectively enforcing our immigration laws concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation! 

All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!

We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.

This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!

You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Lead, follow or get out of the way!


-michael cutler- 

Please check out my website:

https://www.michaelcutler.net/

       

On Friday evenings from 7:00 PM until 8:00 PM Eastern Time, I host my show, “The Michael Cutler Hour” on the USA Talk Radio Network on Blog Talk Radio.

Call in and join the conversation!  The phone number is 310-982-4145

I hope you will be listening!  (Please tell your friends and neighbors!)

Here is a link to the program:

http://www.usaradionetwork.com/cutler.htm


“At USCIS- Speed Kills”

Michael W. Cutler, Senior Special Agent, INS (Ret.)

Senior Fellow, Californians for Population Stabilization


United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is one of the component agencies under the aegis of the DHS, an agency that has proven itself to be so inept and devoid of integrity and vital resources that I have come to refer to it as the Department of Homeland Surrender.

USCIS is charged with adjudicating applications for a wide variety of immigration benefits such as permitting foreign students to change schools, providing aliens with lawful status and Green Cards and conferring United States citizenship upon aliens through the naturalization process. USCIS is also charged with administering the administration’s pet project known as DACA (Deferred Action- Childhood Arrivals) which has, thus far, adjudicated hundreds of thousands of applications without in-person interviews and an approval rate well in excess of 90%.

It is estimated that each year USCIS processes more than 6 million applications for immigration benefits including more than 600,000 applications for naturalization. The pressure to keep up with the massive influx of applications means that the priority for the beleaguered adjudications officers is to approve applications as often as possible.  It is important to understand that it takes just minutes to approve an application but hours or days to deny one. It is important to know that there is an inverse relationship between speed and accuracy. Think of the episode of “Lucy at the Bonbon Factory,” except, instead of wrapping candy the adjudicators at USCIS are adjudicating immigration applications that, as the 9/11 Commission reported, have a clear nexus to national security.

Furthermore, there are scant resources available for field investigations to be conducted to seek to uncover fraud. As more aliens succeed in gaming the process and get away with fraud more aliens become encouraged to file applications based on fraud knowing that the likelihood of their crimes being discovered and acted upon are nearly zero.

In point of fact, on April 13, 2013 ICE posted a news release: New York City lawyer sentenced to 5 years in prison for operating substantial immigration fraud scheme.

Here is a quote from that release:

Earl Seth David, 45, ran a scheme in which he and his co-conspirators applied for legal status for tens of thousands of illegal aliens based on phony claims that they had been sponsored for employment by U.S. employers.

David was indicted October 2011, and extradited to the United States from Canada in January 2012. He pleaded guilty in April 2012 to one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

It is mind-boggling that after all of the potential counts to his indictment, David was permitted to plead guilty to just one count each of immigration fraud and mail fraud when it is believed that he committed thousands of separate crimes.

This next quote is no less mind-boggling:

David continued to operate the scheme even after he was suspended from the practice of law in New York State in March 2004.

He fled to Canada in 2006 after learning that his firm was under federal criminal investigation. However, illicit profits from the scheme continued to be funneled to him in Canada…”

How in the world did USCIS continue to accept and process applications from the offices of an attorney whose license had been suspended and who was operating outside the United States?

Additionally, there was no mention of any efforts to identify, locate or arrest any of the estimated more than 25,000 aliens who successfully gamed the immigration system. The 12 individuals who have been thus far named did not include any of the tens of thousands of aliens who benefited from their crimes.

On Friday evenings I host a BlogTalk radio program, “The Michael Cutler Hour” and often invite guests to discuss important issues. On July 27, 2012 my guest was Jerry Casale, a former colleague at the INS who recently retired from USCIS as an Adjudications Officer at Headquarters. Our discussion focused on the plight of the the adjudicators who were expected to keep up with the backlog of applications.

The topic generated so much interest that I invited Jerry back for a follow-up interview on April 5, 2013.

It is clear that management at USCIS pushes speed over accuracy and consequently political expedience over national security.

This is the same agency that would administer Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

doc icon Blog-“At-USCIS-Speed-Kills”-October-27-2013.doc