Thread: REPORT: DHS HALTED BACKGROUND CHECKS TO MEET FLOOD OF AMNESTY REQUESTS

REPORT: DHS HALTED BACKGROUND CHECKS TO MEET FLOOD OF AMNESTY REQUESTS



by MIKE FLYNN 11 Jun 2013 39POST A COMMENT

In advance of his successful reelection, President Obama took executive action to defer, for two years, deportation for illegal immigrants who entered the country as children. The result was a flood of requests to the immigration service for the temporary amnesty. As a result of this demand, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, the Department of Homeland Security cut back on the legally-required criminal background checks of these immigrants. The revelation raises questions of how the agency could handle a blanket amnesty of all illegal immigrants.

In October 2012, Judicial Watch, acting on a tip from a whistleblower, filed a FOIA request with DHS for “all communications, memoranda, emails, policy guidance, directives, initiatives, and any other correspondence respecting the scope and extent of background checks to be performed (or not) on aliens applying to the Obama administration’s DACA program.” [DACA is the acronym for Obama's temporary amnesty directive.]

Memos and emails obtained through the FOIA reveal that the agency suspended conducting full criminal background checks on illegals applying for the program and, instead, instituted a "lean and lite" process, which allowed the applicant to continue moving through the system.

DHS staff were even informed that that an immigrant's failure to produce valid identification should not be a reason to delay their application for amnesty. In an October 3 memo, agents were told “Biometric processing should not be refused solely because an applicant does not present an acceptable ID.”

Interestingly, on November 9th, three days after President Obama won reelection, DHS staff were told to stop taking applications for the temporary amnesty. It was somehow no longer necessary to expedient the granting of temporary amnesty.

“The Obama administration seems to be throwing public safety and national security out the door in implementing its illicit and unilateral amnesty program for illegal aliens. The costs and security lapses of this program show that this administration can’t be trusted to implement any of the new security measures in the amnesty bill in the Senate,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement.

Supporters of the Senate amnesty bill promise that no illegal immigrants will be placed on the path to citizenship without being a full criminal background check. If the agency couldn't handle applications from several hundred thousand immigrants, how can it handle the 11 million would will be legalized after the bill passes?

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...nesty-Requests

Added to the Homepage
http://www.alipac.us/content.php?r=1...NESTY-REQUESTS

David Inserra
June 20, 2013 at 12:42 pm
The Foundry


Zhang Yan/ZUMA Press/Newscom

Last week, government watchdog Judicial Watch issued a report that showed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) abandoning ordinary background checks due to a surge in amnesty applications as a result of President Obama’s executive action last year.

If DHS cannot manage a few hundred thousand temporary amnesty applications, it is scary to think about how it will handle 10 million or more amnesty applications that would occur as a result of the Senate’s immigration reform bill.

Based on e-mails and documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Judicial Watch’s report revealed that DHS agents were operating under irregular and inconsistent orders on how to manage Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applications. This resulted in DHS moving in September 2012 to a “lean and light” system of background checks, with only a few randomly selected applications being processed.

Then on November 9, 2012—three days after the re-election of President Obama—the entire agency was told to “put all DACA work on hold until further notice.” Judicial Watch received no other documents indicating how or when DHS resumed background checks—if they have even resumed at all.

Under the Senate’s immigration bill, S. 744, the vast majority of the estimated 11.5 million unlawful immigrants would be given registered provisional immigrant status after passing a background check. This is supposed to ensure that criminal aliens or national security threats are not being allowed to remain in the U.S. DHS, however, would only have six months to prepare for this flood of amnesty applications and background checks.

This is in addition to the many other things that DHS would have to do, including launching new border security plans and enforcement systems, creating and executing a biometric exit system, administering new visas, overseeing new agricultural worker programs, and implementing a brand new employment verification program.

Then add to that the ways in which the executive branch could use its discretion to distort the system. Judicial Watch’s FOIA requests also uncovered the former Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, actively urging unlawful immigrants to pursue employment. She told workers that “federal laws are very clear and protect all workers equally, whether or not they have papers.” The former Secretary needs a lesson on U.S. immigration and labor laws, because that’s not the way it works.

President Obama’s DACA, Solis’s statement, and countless other actions show that this Administration will enforce immigration laws the way it wants to. Together with the sheer volume of work DHS has to do under S. 744, it doesn’t leave a lot of hope for real background checks.

http://blog.heritage.org/2013/06/20/...ground-checks/

Added recently added article above to the Homepage, needs more exposure imo:
http://www.alipac.us/content.php?r=1...kground-Checks