Immigration Policy

Citizenship Granted To Ineligible Applicants

There was a significant breakdown in the citizenship process over a 13-month period beginning in August 1995, according to a new study conducted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and KMPG Peat Marwick.

  • More than 38,000 immigrants granted citizenship during the period failed to meet one or more basic requirements.

  • INS offices made at least one processing error in 90.8 percent of naturalization cases reviewed, with an average of two errors per case.

  • INS offices in Miami, New York and Newark had error rates of 99 percent or higher and in 71 percent of the surveyed cases the files failed to show that the applicants met the "good moral character" requirement, usually because there was no indication that a fingerprint card had been sent to the FBI.

  • The study projected that about 11,500 new citizens may have been ineligible because they had a disqualifying criminal conviction or failed to reveal an arrest for a crime.

Critics said the survey results were worse than previously indicated.

Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee, said that each new study presents "a more frightening snapshot of how far wrong the politicized program went." He repeated charges that the White House manipulated the INS's 1995 "Citizenship USA" program for political advantage in the 1996 elections.

Source: William Branigin, "Study Indicates INS Naturalized Thousands of Ineligible Applicants," Washington Post, February 10, 1998.

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