'Crime and Corruption at the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services
By Marinka Peschmann, Special to Canada Free Press Wednesday, January 21, 2009
As immigrant rights activists demand immigration reform from the Obama administration, it is critical to acknowledge that concrete reform cannot be achieved as long as the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) is riddled with corruption and criminal abuse.
Crime and corruption at the USCIS formerly the Immigration and Nationalization Services, (INS) is the dirty secret few politicians dare mention within their vaulted rhetoric calling for urgent immigration reform that never materializes. Thus far, their hollow words and legislative tinkering over the last 20 years produced few results except costing taxpayers a fortune. Story here. Worse, this U.S. $2.6 billion agency, under the Clinton and Bush administrations, grew into a dysfunctional anti-lawful immigrant bureaucracy that invites corruption. The USCIS, often the antithesis of law and order, is a ticking bomb with potential to cause severe damage to America.
Tasked to protect national security by keeping terrorists out, the USCIS’s responsibilities include granting visas, residency, and citizenship to law abiding foreign-born workers while balancing economic needs, and honouring America’s tradition as a nation of immigrants. But the USCIS’s checkered history is stained with bribery indictments.
For years federal employees have been caught taking bribes or demanding sexual favors from foreign nationals in exchange for processing their applications to live in America. And for every corrupt official arrested, how many stop taking bribes--temporarily? How many dubious foreign nationals already bribed their way in? There is no real way to measure and exploited foreigners are reluctant to report these crimes for fear of jeopardizing their American dream. All this flagrant corruption occurs in large part because the USCIS is overwhelmed by backlogs from immigrants following America’s laws stuck in the nonsensical and degrading bureaucracy. This is the madness called the USCIS. This is America’s immigration agency.
Take a look:
[...]
Last December, former President Bush “expressed regrets about not achieving an overhaul of immigration laws,” but truth be told it is a tragedy that neither the Clinton or Bush Administrations and Congress did not accomplish concrete reform. Instead the USCIS perversely created a pathway to crime, in a taxpayer funded agency that benefits criminals. As is, the USCIS could not possibly safely process millions of illegal aliens should amnesty or a “pathway to citizenship” become part of the Obama administration’s reform plans.
Until this fiasco called the USCIS roots out crime and corruption and tangibly becomes a lawful and efficient agency, Americans, principled USCIS officials, and law abiding foreigners can expect reform in name only. Criminals and malevolent foreigners, however, can expect that the privilege to live in America is still for sale.
Perhaps the immigrant rights groups would better serve America’s interests by advocating on behalf of the rights of American taxpayers and lawful immigrants stuck in backlogs. "
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/7787
As immigrant rights activists demand immigration reform from the Obama administration, it is critical to acknowledge that concrete reform cannot be achieved as long as the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) is riddled with corruption and criminal abuse.
Crime and corruption at the USCIS formerly the Immigration and Nationalization Services, (INS) is the dirty secret few politicians dare mention within their vaulted rhetoric calling for urgent immigration reform that never materializes. Thus far, their hollow words and legislative tinkering over the last 20 years produced few results except costing taxpayers a fortune. Story here. Worse, this U.S. $2.6 billion agency, under the Clinton and Bush administrations, grew into a dysfunctional anti-lawful immigrant bureaucracy that invites corruption. The USCIS, often the antithesis of law and order, is a ticking bomb with potential to cause severe damage to America.
Tasked to protect national security by keeping terrorists out, the USCIS’s responsibilities include granting visas, residency, and citizenship to law abiding foreign-born workers while balancing economic needs, and honouring America’s tradition as a nation of immigrants. But the USCIS’s checkered history is stained with bribery indictments.
For years federal employees have been caught taking bribes or demanding sexual favors from foreign nationals in exchange for processing their applications to live in America. And for every corrupt official arrested, how many stop taking bribes--temporarily? How many dubious foreign nationals already bribed their way in? There is no real way to measure and exploited foreigners are reluctant to report these crimes for fear of jeopardizing their American dream. All this flagrant corruption occurs in large part because the USCIS is overwhelmed by backlogs from immigrants following America’s laws stuck in the nonsensical and degrading bureaucracy. This is the madness called the USCIS. This is America’s immigration agency.
Take a look:
[...]
Last December, former President Bush “expressed regrets about not achieving an overhaul of immigration laws,” but truth be told it is a tragedy that neither the Clinton or Bush Administrations and Congress did not accomplish concrete reform. Instead the USCIS perversely created a pathway to crime, in a taxpayer funded agency that benefits criminals. As is, the USCIS could not possibly safely process millions of illegal aliens should amnesty or a “pathway to citizenship” become part of the Obama administration’s reform plans.
Until this fiasco called the USCIS roots out crime and corruption and tangibly becomes a lawful and efficient agency, Americans, principled USCIS officials, and law abiding foreigners can expect reform in name only. Criminals and malevolent foreigners, however, can expect that the privilege to live in America is still for sale.
Perhaps the immigrant rights groups would better serve America’s interests by advocating on behalf of the rights of American taxpayers and lawful immigrants stuck in backlogs. "
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/7787