Fraud among 20% of young immigrants’ applications for ‘protection’
WASHINGTON — One in five applications by young undocumented immigrants applying for President Obama’s “deferred action” protection has been fraudulent, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Tuesday.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) provided no details during a congressional hearing, where Obama’s expansion of his 2012 protective order was under scrutiny.
But an aide said later that the figure had been provided by US Customs officials at a closed briefing.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson didn’t dispute the numbers.
“Fraudulent applications have the potential to undermine the whole process,” Johnson said. “I want to be sure that we look at best practices to avoid . . . misuse of the program.”
That will take some doing, since the executive order Obama signed last month is expected to cover hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came here illegally as kids before 2010.
More than 700,000 have qualified so far.
According to the Customs and Immigration Services Web site, 95 percent of applications under the program have been approved so far. One reason is that in-person interviews aren’t a part of the regular process.
“In fact, you can just fax your stuff in,” said Marguerite Telford of the Center for Immigration Studies.
Customs spokesman Chris Bentley cast doubt on the 20 percent “fraudulent” figure.
“Many people say fraud is just filling out a form wrong,” adding that the feds use it to mean “willful” misrepresentation” to get a benefit.
FILED UNDER BARACK OBAMA, IMMIGRANTS
http://nypost.com/2014/12/03/fraud-a...or-protection/