The Senates immigration bill will raise national security risks and the Obama administration will do little more than rubber-stamp illegal immigrants into the program, endangering Americans, says the labor union representing the 12,000 employees who will have to approve the applications. Kenneth Palinkas, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 119, which represents officers and staff at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, will deliver a damning critique of the Senate bill Monday, according to a copy of his statement obtained by The Washington Times.
His statement goes well beyond the current debate, portraying an agency intent on approving as many illegal immigrants as possible. The culture at USCIS encourages all applications to be approved, discouraging proper investigation into red flags and discouraging the denial of any applications, his remarks say. USCIS has been turned into an approval machine. The union becomes the second key Homeland Security Department labor group to oppose the bill. Its opposition dents the bill and deals a blow to the AFL-CIO the coalition of labor unions that has put major legislative muscle behind the bill this year but is seeing its members peel off.
Mr. Palinkas says the bipartisan Gang of Eight senators who wrote the Senate bill never talked to the USCIS and that the legislation is riddled with special-interest loopholes and shirks security checks. The legislation was written with special interests producing a bill that makes the current system worse, not better, Mr. Palinkas remarks say. The bill will damage public safety and national security and should be opposed by lawmakers. That was the same complaint made by Chris Crane, chief of the union representing agents and officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mr. Crane has said the Senate bill would hurt ICE agents ability to enforce the law.
But the USCIS officers opposition could be even more potent. They describe themselves as the backbone of any legalization effort the officers who will have to review each application and decide whether it meets the standards and whether the person is a security risk. Their warnings could carry weight with lawmakers worried about a repeat of the amnesty in 1986, when hundreds of thousands of immigrants defrauded the system. All sides say they want to avoid the same scenario.
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Labor union chief calls immigration bill dangerous, sees agency as 'approval machine' - Washington Times
