Former Immigration Official Says Fraud, Corruption Rife at Agency

[UpInArms]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/print?id=1813823

April 6, 2006 — - The agency that's supposed to protect our borders and keep out terrorists is riddled with fraud and corruption, according to testimony before Congress today.

A House subcommittee heard from Michael J. Maxwell, former director of the office of security and investigations of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. He portrayed a dysfunctional agency crippled by corruption both inside and outside that's trying to handle too many cases with too few employees.

"The integrity of the United States immigration system has been corrupted, and the system is incapable of ensuring the security of our homeland," Maxwell told the committee.

He told of overworked immigration officials pressured into approving requests to enter the United States even if proper security checks had not been done.

"Employees are tempted to grant benefits in order to receive cash, promotions, time off rather than deny the benefit," he said. He accused supervisors of putting pressure on workers to handle 12 to 16 applications an hour, which he called a dangerously high caseload.

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(note to Mods: This article is 2 hours older than the 12 hour limit, but I searched and did not find it posted. It may have been overlooked yesterday because of the *Co tie-in to the leak. I do think it is an important piece of news. Do as you will and thanks for all you do. UIA)

[Immad2]

1. Thank you very much for posting this article. It goes hand in hand with

the immigration reform.