March 17, 2006

GAO report shows how "guest" worker schemes would fail miserably

Last week the WashTimes got ahold of a draft of a GAO report that says that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is barely able to deal with fraud and won't have a fraud-management system in place for four years: "Immigration agency falters in handling fraud cases".

The USCIS would be the agency in charge of administering any of the "guest" worker schemes. They have a tremendous backlog and they're unable to deal with fraud, and the Bush administration, the Senate, and House Democrats would let them determine whether millions of people can stay or go.

In other words, the supposed new legal way to bring millions of low-wage serf laborers here would be rife with fraud and would result in untold numbers of people getting amnesty who weren't entitled to it. And, some of those might even be terrorists (See Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report for a past case).

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican and one of those who requested the report, wouldn't talk about specifics until it is released, but he told a Judiciary Committee meeting last week that senators would "be shocked if you learned about the internal fraud and abuse at the Citizenship and Immigration Service."

Mr. Grassley said from what he's seen, it's "unrealistic" to expect USCIS to administer a guest-worker program properly.

"Officials are being bribed. Visas are being given away. Green cards are being sold," he said.

Angelica Alfonso, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the report "does not fully portray how the Department of Homeland Security has been addressing anti-fraud since its inception."

...The report also says neither USCIS nor Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one of the law-enforcement arms of the immigration services, regularly penalize those who file fraudulent applications. Thus, there is no risk to filing fraudulently and aliens or businesses seeking to employ them can keep trying until they succeed...

Related: "Immigration fraud exposed", "Guestworker Plan Discredited By New GAO Report", "Case Closed: Immigration Agency Would Be Incapable of Managing a New Guest Worker/Amnesty Program, Finds GAO", and "View on guest workers changes". In the last the head of USCIS disputes the GAO report and says that everything would work out OK. Just five months ago he said everything wouldn't work out OK, but apparently something magical - perhaps involving elves or fairy sprites - has happened in the meantime to change his mind.

The GAO said USCIS doesn't have a handle on the size and scope of fraud, and [USCIS director Emilio Gonzalez] said he doesn't know how extensive the problem is nor could he say how many times the USCIS has pursued administrative or criminal penalties for fraud. But he said fraud is not overwhelming the agency.

"That there's fraud out there -- I assume there is. Is this something that's rampant and we don't have a handle on? I think that's probably going a bit too far," he said.

I tend to believe the GAO and I tend to strongly disbelieve those working for the Bush administration.

Posted to Immigration at March 17, 2006 02:03 AM

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