The Trump administration hopes to lock down funding from Congress to cover hiring 200 special agents in the Department of Homeland Security who would specifically investigate immigration fraud.
During an exchange with Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) at a hearing on Thursday, Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security that his agency was in the process of carrying out the White House’s plans.
Cuellar said USCIS intended to hire “200 agents” for the forthcoming Atlanta-based USCIS Vetting Center and questioned why other agencies could not take on this added work.
“What I am trying to create here is a very narrow criminal investigation branch that is going to focus specifically on immigration fraud and entitlement fraud that falls within our purview,” Edlow said.
“For the amount of immigration fraud that we have seen, that we have uncovered, that I know has been in the system for many, many years, there is a very small number, hardly any prosecutions, we’ve ever seen. This is to really focus on that,” Edlow said.
The decision to create a special office focused on reviewing legal immigration applicants for fraud was made last November following the shooting of two West Virginia National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., by an Afghan national who entered the country during the Biden administration but was granted asylum during President Donald Trump’s first year in office.
The Trump administration announced last December that USCIS would re-examine green cards issued to people from 19 countries deemed to be “of concern” following the shooting. Afghanistan was included in the 19 countries, as well as Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
USCIS was pushed during the border crisis under the Biden administration to expedite the immigration and naturalization processes “with little regard for how that affected national security and the safety of our communities,” according to Edlow.
The DHS stated that it would review all asylum cases that had been approved under former President Joe Biden.
ICE ARRESTS UNDER TRUMP NEAR 457,000
At present, special agents work within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations arm.
Edlow said all newly hired special agents at USCIS will go through the criminal investigator training program, as well as a nine-week special agent training program specific to USCIS.