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    Immigration agency perks putting security at risk?

    Employee teams at immigration agency earn bonuses, parties to reduce backlog of applications

    Immigration agency perks putting security at risk?

    By Sara A. Carter, Staff Writer

    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service employees were offered financial incentives to push immigration applications through the system quickly and eliminate a backlog of nearly 4 million such applications in time to meet a presidential deadline, the Daily Bulletin has learned.

    Employees and internal documents also reveal that the backlog is not actually gone, but that millions of applications in process have been reclassified to fall outside the backlog definition and help the agency meet an October deadline set by President Bush in 2003.

    The pressure to reduce the backlog, combined with the promise of bonuses for faster work, led to application shortcuts that may have compromised the immigrant screening process, according to current and former agency employees and at least one congressman.

    USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez announced last week that the agency has reduced backlogged applications for green cards, work visas and other immigration benefits from 3.98 million to fewer than 140,000.

    "This achievement is a testament to the thousands of USCIS employees who have come in early, stayed late and worked weekends to complete their production goals," Gonzalez wrote in a Sept. 5 e-mail obtained by the Daily Bulletin. " ... What's more important, however, is that we have not cut corners, lost our focus on national security, or compromised quality or integrity in the name of production."

    A USCIS memo obtained by the Daily Bulletin reveals that monetary incentives totaling up to $5 million were promised to USCIS employees nationwide for meeting "production challenges" designed to eliminate the application backlog. The funds are to be disbursed by the end of the fiscal year in the form of $500 bonuses for employees, and to pay for office parties. USCIS officials made the memo public Monday.

    A USCIS employee said Sunday that the rush to meet the October deadline, and earn bonus pay, led to mistakes and oversights in processing immigration applications.

    "When they started giving incentives, people started cutting corners," said the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I've worked with adjudicators who have to complete a number of applications per hour to get an award. But when those cases landed on my desk, they were all wrong."

    "They told us not to check for aliases because it slows down production," said another adjudicator, from USCIS' central region. "Other employees just wanted to process applications as fast as possible to get the incentives. ... The backlog reduction awards made people careless because they had to move through so many applications per month."

    "We don't sell clothing. We grant benefits that could lead to somebody getting citizenship," said an adjudicator from Texas. "Offering bonuses and incentives shouldn't play a role when it comes to national security."

    Chris Bentley, a USCIS spokesman, flatly denied that corners were cut in processing applications.

    "USCIS does not grant an immigrant services or benefits until all background national security checks are complete and we know that the individual is fully eligible for the benefits being sought," he said.

    Bentley also defended the bonuses and parties, though he favored another definition of the events.

    "I wouldn't call (them) parties," he said. "It's a celebration of something that reflects on the extraordinary work our employees have done. We are commemorating their work to eliminate the backlog. It's a job well done and something we are extremely proud of -- without compromising national security.

    "There are monies set aside for awards," Bentley continued. "It's a proven management tool. It's just like receiving a bonus from any line of work. You reward outstanding work so that your employees continue the great effort."

    Bentley said he could not disclose the number of federal employees participating in the incentive program or the full cost of the celebrations until USCIS officials receive word about who will participate. USCIS has more than 15,000 employees nationwide.

    The chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Nonproliferation criticized the incentives, saying USCIS' priorities are skewed and that taxpayer money is being misspent.

    "I thought USCIS got the message (during Royce's April committee hearings) to put national security over expediency," said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton. "I do not want production goals to take priority over fraud prevention."

    In an Aug. 30 USCIS memo obtained by the newspaper, Michael Aytes, associate director for USCIS Domestic Operations, advised all service center directors, regional directors, district directors and Director Robert Cowan of the National Benefits Center that employees who have worked with USCIS since at least May 30 would be given an individual $500 bonus promised in December 2005 as a reward for backlog reduction.

    The memo also directs each office to organize a "celebration of its production accomplishments," for which up to $15 per employee will be provided, though "no individual center or office may spend more than $7,500 for this informal award event."

    "Perhaps the public will question the judgment of USCIS to spend millions of dollars on backlog elimination bonuses and parties at a time when Congress has called for hearings to determine to what extent national security may have been jeopardized by the push to reduce the backlog," said Michael Maxwell, former director of internal affairs for USCIS, who testified before Royce's subcommittee earlier this year about security failures within USCIS.

    During a press conference in March, Gonzalez was questioned by reporters about allegations and internal documents that Maxwell had brought to the attention of Congress. One such allegation was that offices and service centers were holding competitions, offering incentives for rapid elimination of the backlog, "including cash bonuses, time off, movie tickets, and gift certificates, to employees and/or teams of employees with the fastest processing times."

    In an audiotape of the press conference obtained by the Daily Bulletin, Gonzalez dismissed the allegations and said he did not offer incentives for faster processing.

    "No, that's not how I do business," he said. "I want to get the job done. I want to get the job done well."

    Word about the bonuses program follows last week's call by Royce for a congressional investigation and hearing about screening lapses on applicants for green cards, work permits and other immigration documents at the National Benefits Center in Lee's Summit, Mo. Those lapses were first reported by the Daily Bulletin on Aug. 23.

    Gonzalez's claim that the backlog sits at only 140,000 applications also has been challenged by USCIS employees, outside immigration experts and Royce.

    "The agency's own statistics show a pending caseload of some 3 million immigration, naturalization and asylum applications," said Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations at NumbersUSA, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., that lobbies for tougher immigration control.

    "Despite their efforts to define these applications away, their victory celebration is about 3 million applications premature."

    USCIS documents obtained by the Daily Bulletin show that the difference between the pending caseload and the official backlog lies in the definition of "backlog," which USCIS officials have changed at least two times since the president set the elimination deadline.

    Under the current definition, the official backlog excludes all pending applications filed within the previous six months; all pending applications that are awaiting action by a third party -- anything from a security check by the FBI to verification of a Mexican birth certificate; and all pending applications for benefits that are not immediately available (for example, if the annual limit on green cards has already been reached).

    Royce said USCIS still has an enormous backlog, and that the agency is doing whatever it takes to show a reduction to lend credence to a Senate proposal that offers a guest-worker program and a path to amnesty. President Bush, who favors the Senate proposal over a much harsher House bill, is hoping for an immigration compromise before the end of the year.

    "By one estimate, the Senate bill will bring in over 62 million people over the next decade," Royce said. "USCIS will be faced with a challenge of widespread document fraud. We saw it in the (1986) amnesty bill, and we will see it on a much bigger scale this time around."

    - Sara A. Carter can be reached by e-mail at sara.carter@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8552.

    http://dailybulletin.com/news/ci_4321702
    <div>&ldquo;No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.* You win the war, by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country&rdquo;</div>
    <div>--General George Patton, Jr.</div>

  2. #2
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  3. #3

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    Thanks.

    I did a quick search and didn't see it.
    <div>&ldquo;No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.* You win the war, by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country&rdquo;</div>
    <div>--General George Patton, Jr.</div>

  4. #4
    MW
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    I just sent Lou Dobbs a link to this story.

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts athttps://eepurl.com/cktGTn

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