The Washington Post reported that those
mounds of unprocessed paperwork continue to grow.
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came here
legally are waiting for FBI background checks that must
be obtained before they can become naturalized. Since
2005, the paper recently showed, the "backlog of
legal U.S. immigrants whose applications for
naturalization and other benefits are stuck on hold
awaiting FBI name checks has doubled to 329,160."[
FBI
Name Check Cited In Naturalization,
By Spencer S. Hsu and N.C. Aizenman, June 17, 2007]
That's right. The FBI name check backlog stands
at nearly 330,000 cases.
After an embarrassing citizenship screw-up that I
reported on in
November 2002
involving a
known Hezbollah terrorist
who received naturalization approval,
immigration officials resubmitted 2.7 million names of
applicants to the FBI for additional scrutiny. The
Post reports that "[m]ore than five years later,
the FBI is only now emerging from that huge load, with
about 5,800 names left to be rechecked."
But the pile-up persists: According to homeland
security officials who spoke with the Post, about 90
percent of name checks emerge with no matches within
three months, after an automated search of databases.
But the rest can take months or years. There are only 30
analysts and assistants to coordinate with 56 field
offices and retrieve files stored in 265 locations
nationwide. The FBI is now falling further behind on the
new caseload of some 1.5 million fresh names submitted
by immigration officials every year.
"No one is happy with the status quo,"
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Deputy Director Jonathan
"Jock" Scharfen told the paper. "We share the public's
unhappiness with this, and we're committed to improving
the process."
Hey, how about we fix that process before adding
millions more "guest worker" applications to the
bureaucratic mess?
How about we make
legal immigrant
applicants the priority over illegal
aliens for once?
How about we clear the obstructions to the
"path to citizenship" for those who followed the
rules and came here the right way before we start paving
the "path to citizenship" for those who did it
the wrong way?
When the
shamnesty
proponents start
blubbering
about
compassion and fairness,
ask them where their compassion is for the hundreds of
thousands of legal immigrant applicants who are getting
screwed—and who have paid far more in legal fees and
processing fees than the measly,
cosmetic
"fine" the
shamnesty plan proposes for illegal aliens.
As I wrote back in January, when I warned of the
Coming Amnesty Disaster while too many people were
still snoozing:
“We are incapable of
imposing order and handling the current crush of legal
immigrant applicants in a fair and timely way. You want
"comprehensive immigration reform"? Start with
border control, reliable adjudications, consistent
interior enforcement, and
efficient and
effective deportation policies. And don't pretend
that piling on is going to fix a darned thing.”
Memo to the
Department of Homeland Security: Clear the damn
backlogs first.
Memo to the
Senate: Clear the damn backlogs first.
Memo to the
White House:
Clear the damn backlogs first.
Michelle Malkin [email
her] is author of
Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists,
Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores.
Click
here for Peter Brimelow’s review. Click
here for Michelle Malkin's website.
Michelle Malkin's latest book is "Unhinged:
Exposing Liberals Gone Wild."
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