http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/vi ... 0031-3105r

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- As many as 30,000 foreigners became naturalized U.S. citizens last year despite the fact that officials had lost their case files, a congressional probe found.

The files are used to ensure the foreign applicant is entitled to naturalization, and to run terrorism and criminal records background checks on them.

The Government Accountability Office found that as many as 4 percent of all the naturalization applications approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services might have been adjudicated without the so-called A-file -- containing the documentation which proves the applicant's eligibility and identity -- being available.

Investigators said it was impossible to know for sure how many had gone through because the agency did not require adjudicators to specify when they did not have access to the file.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, manages 55 million A-files in a vast and overwhelmed paper-based bureaucracy.

Investigators said the main reason staff were unable to get access to the files was a lack of adequate training on the agencies new file tracking system.

"It only takes one missing file of somebody with links to a terrorist organization to become an American citizen," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Neb., in a statement. "A terrorist can be unsuccessful thousands of times, but we have to be perfect all the time."

"We can't afford to be handing out citizenship with blinders on."