Fraud Compromises the Immigration System Thus Compromising National Security"

Hi Gang:

Here is my most recent commentary that is posted on the CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization) website.

This time the focus of my article is the way that the adjudications of applications for various immigration benefits, such as the conferring of resident alien status and even United States citizenship has little, if any, integrity.

While much attention has been paid to the southern border of the United States and the lack of security to be found on that border, the issue of a comparable lack of integrity to the immigration benefits program is almost never discussed. The lack of integrity to the immigration benefits program is no less significant than the lack of security of our nation’s borders. In some ways, in fact, this lack of integrity poses even greater risks to the security of our nation and our citizens.

It has often been said that a Green Card, that signifies that an alien has been granted lawful immigrant status is the “Key to the Kingdom.” Citizenship is an even more effective key, opening up virtually every lock our nation has.

Therefore, you could think of USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to be the “locksmith” of the United States. USCIS is a division of the DHS, an agency I have come to refer to as the Department of Homeland Surrender- and as you will see in my commentary below, there are still more reasons to refer to the DHS in those derogatory terms.

Most of us have seen keys that are stamped with the legend, “Do not duplicate.”

This is done to try to prevent unauthorized individuals from getting a copy of keys to sensitive locations or facilities to protect those facilities.

It is important that only “authorized” personnel be given these keys.

The same could most certainly be said about the “Keys to the Kingdom” that resident alien status and United States citizenship represent!

It is not the fault of the vast majority of the employees of the DHS- in fact a number of them, out of loyalty to our nation and their mission have stood up to high ranking members of the administration and refused to “Go along to get along.” Some even went to speak with Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa to voice their concerns. The problem does not lie with field level personnel but with the “leaders” at the top of the chain of command. There is an apt Yiddish expression that, when translated, says, “When a fish goes bad, it smells from the head!”

Once again it is Senator Grassley who is taking charge of making the executive branch accountable, just as he has been doing where ATF’s investigation of “Fast & Furious” is concerned where he partnered with Congressman Issa to conduct hearings into that monumental screw-up masquerading as a government investigation!

As you read the commentary about the lack of integrity to the immigration benefits program, I want you to remember that USCIS would be the agency that would be required to process applications for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, the DREAM Act, or any other such massive amnesty program that would undoubtedly undermine national security and make an utter mockery of the lawful process by which more than 1.1 million aliens are provided with lawful immigrant status and a pathway to United States citizenship, each and every year.

Show me a politician who refuses to enforce the immigration laws or attempts to trivialize these laws, and I will show you a politician who needs to find out what it is like to stand on the unemployment line!

Benjamin Franklin, in discussing our then fledgeling nation, said that they had given us a republic if we could keep it!

What he was making clear was that this democratic republic required that its citizens take their citizenship seriously and keep the political leaders accountable.

It is time for the citizens of our nation to make certain that our nation’s leaders, on all levels, to come to terms with the fundamental fact that the purpose of our immigration laws is to protect our nation and our citizens from aliens whose presence has the potential to have a serious adverse impact. Ignoring those laws exposes our nation and our citizens to a variety of serious threats and challenges ranging from national security and criminal justice and public safety to the economy, the environment, healthcare and education!

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

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our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!

We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.

My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.

The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.

If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

The practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.

For far too long our citizens demonstrated apathy which emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups.

It is therefore understandable that the politicians of both parties, are greatly concerned about the demonstrations currently sweeping our nation just as did the creation of the Tea Party. Clearly more and more of our fellow Americans are demonstrating that they are not as dumb as the politicians from both parties had expected us to be!

I am encouraged that more and more of us, We the People, are not willing to simply sit on the sidelines anymore!

I believe our nation’s is greatly benefited by the rich diversity of our people which is why I could never imagine living anywhere except New York City, arguably the most diverse city in our nation if not, in fact, the world. However, my idea of diversity most certainly does not include members of MS-13, the Mexican drug cartels or members of other transnational gangs or members of al-Qaeda!

I also believe that the original purpose of our nation’s immigration laws need to be be brought “front and center” to make certain that our nation does not permit the entry of aliens into our country whose presence in our country is problematic for the citizens of our nation and that if such aliens do succeed in entering our country that our nation have the resources, integrity and dedication to do everything possible to make it impossible for such aliens to function within our country so that even if they are not apprehended, they will find it pointless to remain in the United States.

As I have noted on a number of occasions, “No one would break into the amusement park if they could not get to go on the rides and no one remains in the amusement park at the end of the day when they turn shut down the rides and turn off the lights!”

If our government’s failures to secure our nation’s borders and effectively enforce 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 Daylight Savings Time, I my show, “The Michael Cutler Hour” on the USA Talk Radio Network on Blog Talk Radio.

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

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http://www.caps-blog.org/articles/2012/02/10/inspector-general-report-fraud-compromises-the-immigration-system-thus-compromising-national-security/

Inspector General Report: Fraud Compromises the Immigration System Thus Compromising National Security

By Michael Cutler, Senior Special Agent, INS (Ret.), CAPS Senior Fellow, February 10, 2012

When
failures of the immigration system are discussed in the news media, the
focus of the discussion most likely involves either our porous southern
border that is supposed to separate the United States from Mexico and
the need to investigate and prosecute employers who intentionally hire
illegal aliens.

In this era of sound-bites and news reports that run for under 3
minutes, televised news reports depend heavily on providing dramatic
video footage to make a point that is quickly understandable by
audiences that appear to be suffering, increasingly from ADD (Attention
Deficit Disorder). Where the immigration issue is concerned, news
programs apparently cannot resist the temptation to provide dramatic
images of illegal aliens jumping our southern border- thereby providing a
skewed perspective to the viewers of the television programs.

An issue that is almost never mentioned or reported on is the way
that aliens are able to attain lawful immigrant status and even United
States citizenship. The adjudications process certainly does not
provide opportunities for dramatic videos. Yet the adjudications
process has a huge impact on the integrity of the entire immigration
system and as a consequence, on national security.

As an INS special agent, I conducted numerous investigations into
suspected immigration fraud and all too often these cases involved
aliens who successfully gamed the immigration system and were involved
in serious criminal or terrorism-related activities.

By providing an alien with resident alien status and consequently a
pathway to United States citizenship, we are providing that alien with a
veritable “Key to the Kingdom.” Unlike many other countries, our
nation does not make any distinction between citizens who acquire their
citizenship by being born in the United States as compared with aliens
who acquire United States citizenship through the naturalization
process. High ranking political leaders of our country have, in fact,
been naturalized United States citizens. Therefore this process should
be of great concern to our government and our citizens yet, over the
past couple of decades, this process has evolved into a near formality
and for decades the focus on those who are in charge of the process by
which aliens receive various immigration be benefits including the
naturalization process, has been to clear up the backlog, running the
bureaucracy as fast as possible. Of course there is an inverse
relationship between speed and accuracy so that the faster applications
are processed, the more likely that quality control will suffer.

I have come to compare the plight of these USCIS Adjudications
Officers with the plight of Lucille and her side kick, Ethel in that old
television sitcom “I Love Lucy” when they get a job at a candy factory
and they are given the job of wrapping morsels of candy that are
delivered on the conveyor belt. At first they are able to do the job
quite well and then the conveyor belt begins to pick up speed. No matter
how fast they work, they cannot keep up. They begin eating some of the
bonbons and then they try stuffing them down their clothes but to no
avail as the candy on the belt hurtles at them at warp speed.

The image of the lunacy at the candy factory made for a classic bit
of hilarious television humor. However, when applications for resident
alien status and United States citizenship are flung on the desks of the
hapless Adjudications Officers at USCIS in ever greater numbers and
ever more quickly, there is no humor to be found. Certainly these USCIS
employees cannot eat the applications or the relating immigration files-
nor can they stuff them down their clothes.

Requiring that the adjudications process to be continually speeded up
in an effort to keep up with the increasing numbers of applications
creates a vicious cycle where quality control and integrity of the
system become the casualties of this hobbled system. Ultimately the
citizens of our nation may well become the real casualties as a
significant component of national security falters and fails.

The 9/11 Commission identified 94 terrorists who had entered the
United States in the decade before the attacks of September 11, 2001 and
determined that 59 of those terrorists had used visa fraud and/or
immigration benefit fraud in order to enter the United States and embed
themselves in our country as they prepared to participate in terrorist
plots. Other such terrorists have subsequently made use of similar
tactics.

Therefore I was greatly concerned when, about a year ago, staffers at
Senator Grassley’s office contacted me to inform me of information that
they had received about allegations made by high-ranking officials at
the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) Service
Center located in California that they were being pressured into
approving applications for various benefits even when fraud was
suspected.

Ironically, the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims conducted a hearing
into the findings of the OIG concerning CUSA on September 7, 2000, just
one year and four days before the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001.

As a result of the allegations that were recently made by the managers of the California Service Center the OIG issued a report, and the USCIS wrote a report that was, appropriately enough, entitled, Rubber Stamp.

Here is an important quote from that article:

One-quarter of the 254 officers surveyed said they
have been pressured to approve questionable cases, sometimes “against
their will.”

The report does not call out any particular officials and indicates
that the agency has had a problem with valuing quantity over quality
since at least the 1980s.

But high-ranking USCIS officials said the pressure has
heightened after the Obama administration appointed Alejandro Mayorkas
as director in August 2009 during an effort to pass comprehensive
immigration reform, bringing with him a mantra of “get to yes.”

Clearly the situation at USCIS is acceptable and although the
administration now claims to have addressed these serious deficiencies,
this is a bit like the case where Secretary of Homeland Security
Napolitano claims that the borders are more secure than ever! Given the
situation to be found in Mexico and the threats posed by porous
borders, what passes for secure borders is not secure enough and what
passes for integrity where the adjudications process is concerned does
not have adequate integrity.

Last month Jeanine Pirro interviewed House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith about the abysmal situation to be found at USCIS.
He stated that a hearing will be conducted by the House Judiciary
Committee on February 15, 2012. This is a hearing that we need to pay
attention to!

Groucho Marx once remarked that he would not want to belong to an
organization that would have him as a member. United States citizenship
should be taken far for seriously for a host of reasons that begins
with national security but must also take into account how so many
lawful immigrants were proud to achieve their dreams of U.S. citizenship
that has been so demeaned and cheapened by politicizing the immigration
system that has turned this once solemn process into little more than a
meaningless formality.

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