No Time To Investigate Treason?
The Washington Times reports that the immigration service has failed to investigate employees who allegedly have assisted radical Islamists in gaining false identification so that they can conduct terrorist activities here in the US. An internal report claims that a lack of resources has kept the USCIS from conducting proper investigations, but the severity of the crimes and their consequences should have demanded some reprioritization (via CQ reader Stoo):
A criminal investigations report says several U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees are accused of aiding Islamic extremists with identification fraud and of exploiting the visa system for personal gain.The confidential 2006 USCIS report said that despite the severity of the potential security breaches, most are not investigated "due to lack of resources" in the agency's internal affairs department.
"Two District Adjudications Officers are allegedly involved with known (redacted) Islam terrorist members," said the internal document obtained by The Washington Times.
The group "was responsible for numerous robberies and used the heist money to fund terrorist activities. The District Adjudications Officers made numerous DHS database queries to track (Alien)-File movement and check on the applicants' status for (redacted) members and associates."
This problem has hardly been limited to USCIS, a subsidiary agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to the Times, ICE has had agents and managers moving contraband through diplomatic pouches around the world. ICE downgraded this conspiracy from a criminal investigation to a managerial problem -- and never prosecuted anyone involved.
At least that corrupt network didn't explicitly violate national security to assist the nation's enemies. Immigration control should be the front line against radical Islamist infiltration into the US. The robbers described in the opening paragraphs were not the only people exploiting the greed of ICE officials. A Lebanese citizen bribed an immigration officer with airline tickets. Another officer sold twenty people immigration documents for as much as $10,000 apiece, proving himself a much better businessman than his colleague.
These ICE officials may not realize it, but we're at war with terrorists and saboteurs. People who deliberately engage in corruption to allow enemies through the borders are committing treason, and treason of the worst kind. They're selling the lives of potentially thousands of Americans who trust them to defend the nation for thirty pieces of silver -- and they're going to cost us our lives, sooner or later.
The excuse that they lack the resources to investigate the sale of our borders to our enemies won't cut it. These activities undermine the very reason for the USCIS to exist. If the USCIS doesn't have the resources in their $2 billion annual budget to investigate treason, then someone else needs to start setting priorities at the agency.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on August 15, 2007 9:39 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)
Comments (11)
Posted by BoWowBoy | August 15, 2007 10:16 AM
Captain ..............you still don't get it.
The feds do not take immigration policy seriously .......... and ............ are only trying to exacerbate the issue for the benefit of those opposed to enforcement.
It doesn't make any difference to them whether aliens are from Mexico, Yemen, China or Norway. They are not gonna move on enforcing our United States Immigration Laws.
If they won't enforce immigration law .............thus allowing criminal alien lawlessness .................they dang sure are not gonna prosecute their own.
This new push by Chertoff to apply enforcement of employers on a social security no match letters ...........is only window dressing .........concocted to mobilize the open borders crowd and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ........... to push back against immigration laws.
Posted by J'hn1 | August 15, 2007 10:31 AM
If ICE doesn't seem capable of investigating their own, then pull part of the budget and assign the investigative duties to an existing branch that can (with the budget to do so). Make that other branch have first draw on the ICE budget accounts, although accountable for results.
Posted by Ken | August 15, 2007 10:36 AM
Someone working with driver's licenses here in Tampa was just charged by the Feds with providing false licenses for as little as $200 per transaction.
Story here:
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/aug/15/me-federal-charge-filed-in-license-fraud/?news-breaking
Posted by FedUp | August 15, 2007 11:02 AM
It would be great to be able to hold these 'terrorists' accountable! But the question is... to whom? Homeland Security (an oxymoron)? Congress? The Feds? Activists Judges? The ACLU??
Time to create an organization outside of the government, headed by REAL people, who are goal oriented (kinda like the MinuteMen). Give them the money, set goals, hold them accountable and TURN THEM LOOSE!
Posted by RBMN | August 15, 2007 11:04 AM
Article:
Immigration documents (cards) can and should contain a log file of the application and approval process for that alien in a compressed encrypted form that all law enforcement can read. There's no reason the immigration official who approved the card can't have their own identifying information (codenumber) on that card along with the vital statistics of the cardholder. If immigration officials know their own name is forever tied to the cardholder's, that should give them some pause.
Posted by David | August 15, 2007 12:32 PM
Just a correction. USCIS is not part of ICE but is now its own separate DHS entity.
Posted by Former Federal employee | August 15, 2007 12:37 PM
Two things about USCIS. It is not part of ICE. They are two agencies within DHS. They need to work together, but they have two different tasks. USCIS exists to allow people into the country; ICE exists to monitor people and stuff coming into the country. Second, the $2B budget for USCIS is generated not from Federal Appropriations but from revenue generated by application fees. A recent change in fees will increase the FY2008 budget.
If you do nominal research on USCIS, you will find that it is deficient in several ways. I would recommend interested parties scan GAO reports and Congressional testimony. The root of several issues lies in the responsibility of USCIS to bring people into the country. The powers that be simply do not consider those who shouldn't be allowed into the country.
Posted by the tapper | August 15, 2007 1:00 PM
It is still the money. From the congressman to the little man working at INS or the Licensing department. It's the money stupid. Someone should be minding the henhouse besides the fox. This whole Nation seems to be deteriorating from the inside out. As Reagan said and I paraphrase, a Nation not under God soon is a nation gone under.......Wake Up America....
Posted by MarkD | August 15, 2007 3:07 PM
There are the grounds for impeachment, Dems.
Since neither party is interested in enforcing our laws and securing our borders, the mindless investigation of non-crimes will continue. Investigation of real felonies is out of the question.
Posted by Sharpshooter | August 15, 2007 3:19 PM
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious, but it cannot survive treason from
within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.
But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through
all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he
speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he
appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation,
he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects
the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. -- Marcus Tullius Cicero
Posted by MAJ Arkay | August 16, 2007 2:20 PM
Treason, or aiding the enemy in time of war, are heinous crimes. They are also not subject to "internal investigations." These crimes are investigated by the FBI.
Not having the resources to conduct investigations not within their jurisdiction is no excuse! Not reporting it to the FBI for a proper national security investigation is an even worse failure.
Several somebodies need to be prosecuted for misprision of treason by their failure to act.
Scumbags.