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Jewish World Review
June 27, 2007
/ 11 Tamuz, 5767
Clear the damn backlogs first
By
Michelle Malkin
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Harry Reid boasts of his compassion for "undocumented Americans." President Bush wants understanding for "newcomers" without papers. The so-called Grand Bargainers on both sides of the aisle in the Senate are pushing forward this week with their massive plan to "regularize" the unregularized and bring in hundreds of thousands of extra foreign guest workers on top of the ones who are already here or have been waiting for approval for years.
Why can't anyone in Washington pinpoint what's wrong with this picture?
Over the last several years, I've noted the following immigration backlogs that continue to plague our homeland security system:
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The backlog of 600,000-plus fugitive deportee cases.
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The backlog of an estimated 100,000 FBI background checks for legal immigrant applicants.
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The disappearance of 111,000 citizenship applications.
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The backlog of 4 million immigration applications of all kinds.
The Washington Post reported that those mounds of unprocessed paperwork continue to grow. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came here legally are waiting for FBI background checks that must be obtained before they can become naturalized. Since 2005, the paper recently showed, the "backlog of legal U.S. immigrants whose applications for naturalization and other benefits are stuck on hold awaiting FBI name checks has doubled to 329,160."
That's right. The FBI name check backlog stands at nearly 330,000 cases.
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After an embarrassing citizenship screw-up that I reported on in November 2002 involving a known Hezbollah terrorist who received naturalization approval, immigration officials resubmitted 2.7 million names of applicants to the FBI for additional scrutiny. The Post reports that "[m]ore than five years later, the FBI is only now emerging from that huge load, with about 5,800 names left to be rechecked."
But the pile-up persists: According to homeland security officials who spoke with the Post, about 90 percent of name checks emerge with no matches within three months, after an automated search of databases. But the rest can take months or years. There are only 30 analysts and assistants to coordinate with 56 field offices and retrieve files stored in 265 locations nationwide. The FBI is now falling further behind on the new caseload of some 1.5 million fresh names submitted by immigration officials every year.
"No one is happy with the status quo," U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Deputy Director Jonathan "Jock" Scharfen told the paper. "We share the public's unhappiness with this, and we're committed to improving the process."
Hey, how about we fix that process before adding millions more "guest worker" applications to the bureaucratic mess?
How about we make legal immigrant applicants the priority over illegal aliens for once?
How about we clear the obstructions to the "path to citizenship" for those who followed the rules and came here the right way before we start paving the "path to citizenship" for those who did it the wrong way?
When the shamnesty proponents start blubbering about compassion and fairness, ask them where their compassion is for the hundreds of thousands of legal immigrant applicants who are getting screwed — and who have paid far more in legal fees and processing fees than the measly, cosmetic "fine" the shamnesty plan proposes for illegal aliens.
As I wrote back in January, when I warned of the Coming Amnesty Disaster while too many people were still snoozing:
We are incapable of imposing order and handling the current crush of legal immigrant applicants in a fair and timely way. You want "comprehensive immigration reform"? Start with border control, reliable adjudications, consistent interior enforcement, and efficient and effective deportation policies. And don't pretend that piling on is going to fix a darned thing.
Memo to the Department of Homeland Security: Clear the damn backlogs first.
Memo to the Senate: Clear the damn backlogs first.
Memo to the White House: Clear the damn backlogs first.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR contributor Michelle Malkin's column by clicking here.
Michelle Malkin Archives
MICHELLE'S LATEST:
In Unhinged: Liberals Gone Wild
Un·hinged
adj : affected with madness or insanity; [syn: brainsick, crazy, demented, distracted, disturbed, mad, sick, unbalanced]
— The American Heritage Dictionary
*** Warning: Unhinged liberals are hazardous to the nation's health.
They're slashing your tires. Burning your lawns. Heaving pies at Republican pundits. Hurling racist epithets at minority conservatives. Nursing nutty conspiracy theories. And pining publicly for the murder of President Bush.
And they call us crazy?
In In Unhinged: Liberals Gone Wild, Michelle Malkin plays conservative Margaret Mead to the alien political creatures of the American Left. With uproarious detail and rollicking reportage, Malkin chronicles the bizarre world of leftists gone mad in their natural habitats: the mainstream media, academia, Hollywood, and Washington.
Unhinged unmasks liberals who've completely abandoned rationality and reality. They're taking chainsaws and bayonets to campaign signs. Running down political opponents with their cars. Setting fire to political opponents in effigy. Defacing war memorials. Swiping yellow ribbons off cars. And supporting the fragging of American troops.
In Unhinged, you'll meet:
- The Top 10 Unhinged Leftists, Celebrities, Media Liberals, and Politicians. - The Pennsylvania Democrat who repeatedly screamed "faggot" at his Republican opponents on the Senate floor. - The Florida Democrat who tried to run down former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris with his Cadillac. - The Democrat congressman who claimed the capture of Saddam Hussein was staged by GOP operatives to help the Bush re-election campaign. - The veteran newsman who claimed that Bush advisor Karl Rove and Osama bin Laden are working hand-in-hand to help the Republican Party. - And hundreds more unhinged liberals gone wild!
With wit, wisdom, and a bullet-proof vest, Michelle Malkin ruthlessly and raucously skewers the myths of liberal tolerance, peace, and civility. Unhinged shows how conservatives are driving their opponents mad. The good news for liberals? Self-help starts here.
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