GOP Bill Would Ban Government From Granting Immigrants Citizenship

A Republican congressman doesn’t want any immigrants to get citizenship until the federal government modernizes its fingerprint database system.

Republican Rep. John Culberson of Texas filed the bill after a report from the Department of Homelad Security found that 858 immigrants scheduled to be deported were mistakenly given citizenship because of a glitch in the fingerprint database, reported The Hill.

“It is absolutely outrageous that these 858 aliens were able to defraud the government because these paper based fingerprints were not uploaded,” Culberson said in a statement published on his website. “It is even more outrageous that there are currently 148,000 aliens with deportation orders that have not had fingerprints uploaded so this could occur again. These 858 individuals were meant to be deported, and instead, they were granted the rights of citizens, including the ability to sponsor other aliens for entry into the United States and hold jobs in law enforcement positions. My bill forces DHS to upload all of the remaining paper fingerprint records into the government database so that there will never be any excuse for this to happen again.”

In addition to putting a freeze on new citizenship, Culberson’s bill would also require DHS to refer all cases of incorrect naturalizations to the Department of Justice.

“This provision ensures that any individual who defrauds the government in an attempt to gain citizenship will lose their citizenship and be deported immediately,” Culberson’s statement says.

DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said the number of incorrect naturalizations was exaggerated and the correct number was closer to 750, none of which were a national security threat.

“I have no basis to believe that any of them were terrorists or suspected terrorists,” Johnson said.

Sources: The Hill, Rep. John Culberson/ Photo Credit: Daily Kos