More Than 800 Immigrants Mistakenly Granted Citizenship

The Department of Homeland Security's immigration system's transition from a paper system to online databases has caused more than 800 immigrants to be mistakenly granted citizenship.

The A.P. says an audit found that as many as 858 immigrants from countries of concern to national security or that have high rates of immigration fraud were granted us citizenship by mistake.

According to the report, titled "Potentially Ineligible Individuals Have Been Granted U.S. Citizenship Because of Incomplete Fingerprint Records", those individuals should not have received permanent residency status because they had been ordered to be removed from the country under different names.

Inspector General John Roth's auditors told the agency they were from "special interest countries", which include those that raise national security concerns in the United States. In it, the department's Office of Inspector General said at least 858 immigrants were erroneously granted citizenship since 2008.

"This situation created opportunities for individuals to gain the rights and privileges of USA citizenship through fraud", said Inspector General John Roth in a statement.

The problem, according to the audit, is tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and criminal aliens whose files are so old that their fingerprints are still on paper cards.

DHS said the findings reflect what has always been a problem for immigration officials - old paper-based records containing fingerprint information that can't be searched electronically. However, DHS said that the lack of fingerprints doesn't mean that the immigrants committed fraud.

The report said two criminal cases were launched because of the mishandling of the information, but prosecutors would not even take another 26 cases.

The government has known about this "information gap" for over eight years and has done little to nothing to correct the problem. Roth's report cited at least three immigrants who were cleared for citizenship that managed to obtain aviation or transportation worker credentials, which allows them employment-based access to security-regulated areas of airports, maritime buildings and sea craft. Their credentials were revoked after they were identified as having been granted citizenship improperly, Roth said in his report. DHS officials agreed with the recommendations and said the agency is working to implement the changes. A fourth person identified now works as a law enforcement officer.