An internal Obama administration email shows immigration officials
may be literally working overtime to swear in as many new “citizen
voters” as possible before the Nov. 8 presidential election, a powerful
lawmaker charged Thursday.
The email, from a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services field office chief and part of a chain of correspondence within
the agency, urges the unnamed recipient to swear in as many citizens as
possible “due to the election year.”
“The Field Office due to the election year needs to
process as many of their N-400 cases as possible between now and FY
2016,” reads the email, which was disclosed to FoxNews.com by Sen. Ron
Johnson, R-Wis., who chairs the Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs.
“If you have cases in this category or other pending,
you are encouraged to take advantage of the OT if you can,” the email
continues. “This will be an opportunity to move your pending
naturalization cases. If you have not volunteered for OT, please
consider and let me know if you are interested.”
Parts of the email were redacted before it was
disclosed to FoxNews.com, but it was sent by the branch chief of the
Houston Field Office District 17. It was not clear to whom it was
addressed.
“I couldn’t have said it better!” reads the July 21
note introducing the forwarded missive. “It’s the end of the year crunch
time, so let’s get crunchy! Go Team Houston! Thanks for all your hard
work!”
Johnson and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, in a
Wednesday letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh
Johnson, said it appears the agency is trying to swear in new citizens
as the election between Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton and GOP choice
Donald Trump approaches.
“Your department seems intent on approving as many
naturalization cases as quickly as possible at a time when it should
instead be putting on the brakes and reviewing past adjudications,” the
senator’s letter read.
Johnson referred to a report this week from the
Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General that found at least
858 people from terror hotspots and other countries of concern had been
mistakenly granted citizenship despite facing orders of deportation
under other identities.
"Considering that USCIS already has a troubling
record of inadequate review of naturalization applications, and
mistakenly giving away citizenship to terrorists, criminals and other
fraudsters, it is disturbing that they are now in full and blind rubber
stamp mode to crank out new citizens," said Jessica Vaughan, director of
Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies.
In a USCIS planning document submitted to Congress
earlier this year, USCIS reported it expected to receive 828,000 total
applications this year, up from a planned 815,000 last year, an increase
of 13,000, Vaughan said.
A DHS official did not immediately offer comment on the matter.
The effort is reminiscent of a similar bid to bring
in new voters when Bill Clinton ran for re-election in 1996, said
Claude Arnold, a retired U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations.
"I am not at all surprised by this revelation,"
Arnold said. "This is a repeat of the Clinton election playbook. Then it
was to help re-elect Bill Clinton, this time it is to help elect
Hillary Clinton."
The all-out push shows the Obama administration is
using levers to help Clinton win, said Dan Stein, president of
Federation for American Immigration Reform.
"In the pursuit of a partisan advantage, one party
has decided integrity in the system is irrelevant," Stein said. "They
don’t really care about checking backgrounds or verifying status and
eligibility – it is more about increasing the number of eligible voters
in the upcoming election."