Power Line: More Immigration Follies

January 26, 2005

More Immigration Follies

Michelle Malkin has the immigration beat covered like no one else in the media. Today she reports on an astonishing story: the Immigration and Naturalization Service has awarded a green card to an immigrant from Siberia named Eugueni Kniazev. Only one catch: Mr. Kniazev was murdered in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

That's right: the INS has no mechanism in place--still, more than three years after the September 11 attacks--to make sure that the people whose immigration status is under consideration are still alive. Which makes it pretty clear that they also have no idea whether those people are engaged in any undesirable (e.g., terrorist) activities.

There's this, too: I think we can safely assume that Mr. Kniazev applied for the change in his immigration status when he was still alive. Which means that it took the INS three and a half years, at a minimum, to respond to his request. And we know that wasn't because they were conducting such a thorough investigation. Can you imagine any enterprise outside the federal government where a person makes a request, three and a half years go by before the request is finally responded to, and this is considered acceptable performance?

A Department of Homeland Security offcial, when this fiasco was brought to his attention, responded that it is up to family members to notify the INS if an applicant for a change in status dies. Thus, while the incident was "unfortunate," the federal government makes no effort to prevent such occurrences. This answer was eerily reminiscent of the Washington election official who, explaining why it is so easy to commit voter fraud, said that "Instead of employing a rigorous screening process, they rely on people to be honest when registering or voting."

It's hard to say which is a worse mess: enforcement of immigration laws, or enforcement of voting laws.

Posted by John at 07:59 AM |

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