Surprise: Immigration Dept. Is Corrupt

The federal bureaucracy we're supposed to be leaning on to screen the trickle of legal immigrants to the US has been outed as corrupt and inept. Big surprise. As if anything in the federal border protection regime is functional.

If we were to have secure borders and if we were to actually redifine immigration as a legal process, then everyone would have to go through an immigration system that:

"... has also been corrupted and the system is incapable of ensuring the security of our homeland. Ours is a system that rewards criminals, facilitates the movement of terrorists, (and) supports foreign agents."

That was what the House International Relations Committee heard today in testimony from former head of the Office of Security and Investigations at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Michael Maxwell. More from AP:

Maxwell said the immigration agency has failed to investigate more than 500 criminal complaints against its own employees for allegations that include bribery, harboring illegal immigrants, money laundering and aiding known terrorists or being influenced by foreign intelligence services.

In one example, Maxwell said, the agency employed an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen suspected of being a foreign intelligence agent to review asylum applications.

"These breaches compromise virtually every part of the immigration system itself, leaving vulnerabilities that have been and likely are being exploited by criminals and adversaries of the United States," Maxwell said.

As Maxwell testified, the Senate worked out the kinks in a program that would basically give amnesty to 11 million illegals who didn't even bother to go through the background checks that the former immigration official criticized.

One of the steps illegals will have to go through if the Senate cop- out- disguised- as- a- bill passes is a background check. Guess what government department will be responsible for that?

The door is wide open for one party to grab big power by exploiting the sorry state of our immigration system. Secure the border. Deprive illegals of benefits. Enforce violations swiftly and consistently. Investigate thoroughly.

Simply enough, but it is apparently far too much to ask.

Tags: Immigration, Michael Maxwell, Homeland Security