Posted on 01/26/2005 12:31:02 AM PST by Stoat
A heartless homeland security screw-up
Michelle Malkin
January 26, 2005
Do you remember when immigration officials sent out flight school visa approval notices for two of the 9/11 hijackers -- six months after they had committed their suicide attacks on America?
President Bush proclaimed his outrage, four federal immigration officials were reassigned, and Washington vowed that such embarrassing bureaucratic paperwork snafus would never happen again.
I'm sorry to report to you that it has, in fact, happened again.
On Jan. 15, immigration officials sent a notice to Eugueni Kniazev of Brooklyn, N.Y. The letter informs Kniazev, an immigrant from Siberia, that he is now "deemed to be a lawful permanent resident of the United States." The notice directs Kniazev to obtain a new alien registration receipt card (what we commonly call a "green card") and instructs him to appear in person at the immigration office at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City with his passport and three recent photos.
But Eugueni Kniazev won't be appearing at Federal Plaza. He won't be going anywhere. Kniazev, 47, was an employee of the Windows on the World restaurant located on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower. After working his way up from dishwasher to facilities manager and living the American dream, Kniazev was murdered in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Let me repeat that for the clueless paper-pushers at the Department of Homeland Security: Eugueni Kniazev won't be picking up his green card because he has been dead for nearly three-and-a-half years.
What on earth is wrong with our federal government? Can you imagine how upsetting it must have been for family members to receive the letter? Why didn't it occur to anybody to cross-check the official list of Sept. 11 victims against the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' records? Did homeland security officials learn nothing from the dead hijacker visa letter fiasco?
After that debacle, top immigration officials pledged "to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's immigration system." In the fall of 2002, President Bush signed into law the creation of the behemoth Department of Homeland Security, encompassing 22 agencies, 180,000 employees and a nearly $34 billion budget. Last month, the president signed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, creating another huge mega-agency "to ensure that the people in government responsible for defending America have the best possible information to make the best possible decisions."
Promises, promises. Despite billions spent on restructuring and new technology, our homeland security system is still unable to prevent a green card approval notice from being sent to a dead person. The fact that the letter recipient is a murdered Sept. 11 victim adds unconscionable insult to bureaucratic injury. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman told me it's up to family members to notify the government when an applicant dies. "It's unfortunate," he said, but there is no mechanism in place to prevent this from happening again.
Eugueni Kniazev's case is only the tip of the incompetence iceberg:
-- The nation's various fingerprint databases still have not been integrated because of bickering among FBI, State Department and homeland security officials, which means that most visitors entering the country still aren't thoroughly screened for terrorist or criminal ties.
-- There is still no system in place for notifying immigration investigators about stolen passports, which led the Homeland Security inspector general to conclude last month that foreigners using the fraudulent documents have "little reason to fear being caught."
-- The long-delayed entry-exit tracking system for foreign visitors -- in the works for nearly a decade -- has still not been implemented fully.
-- There is still no systematic tracking of illegal alien felons.
-- And while millions of legal applicants deal with paperwork backlogs and mishaps that take years if not decades to resolve, the White House supports granting "temporary guest worker" status to upward of 20 million illegal aliens -- a move that rank-and-file homeland security officials say will lead to rampant fraud and even greater bureaucratic overload.
The same overwhelmed and inept immigration system that facilitated Eugueni Kniazev's murder has now made a mockery of his memory.
What more will it take before "Never again" is more than just an empty rhetorical mantra to pacify the American public?
Michelle Malkin is a syndicated columnist and maintains her weblog at michellemalkin.com
I often feel the same way about State and CIA.
What can be done:
1. Contact the members of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Borders, and Claims and ask them to investigate this and other information lapses outlined in the column. The e-mail address of John Hostettler, chairman of the Subcommittee, is John.Hostettler@mail.house.gov. His phone number is (202) 225-4636.
2. Donate to Windows of Hope, the charity for family members of Sept. 11 victims like Mr. Kniazev who worked in the restaurant/services industry.
3. Drop me (Michelle) a line if you have a similar story to share.
4. Keep Mr. Kniazev and his family in your prayers. May he rest in peace without anymore government insults to his memory. The best way to honor him would be to ensure that national embarrassments such as this do not occur again.
Found message board discussions with Malkin on this site:
http://journal.houseonahill.net/index.php/journal/entry/the-americans/
At the moment, I don't have time to check the frequency. Perhaps you could be more specific on the "bone you have to pick" with Michelle; such as link to your commentary. Are they suspicions or facts. I only posted this as I am not a fan of open ended statements when questioning the integrity of another. Educate me in brief.
Will read back later.
fight_truth_decay
If that's true, then they've fixed the system (somewhat) since '79. My grandmother was sent SS checks for almost a year after she passed away. This, even as we sent them back telling them she was deseased.
BUMP!
from an email previously posted:
COWS AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION:
Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else find it fascinating that our government can track a cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to her stall in the state of Washington. They also tracked her calves to their stalls. Yet, we are somehow unable to locate 20 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should start giving each of them a cow when they cross the border.
First off, they were not "visa approval notices". They were in fact the notice to the school, that his students "change of status" had been approved. The dates on those notices were a full month before 9/11.
The notices arrived late, due to the backlog of the “contractor" that send the notices.
I was being 100% sarcastic.
The gov't does not have the personnel or technology systems to track guest workers. Nor do they have the capability or the will to enforce and penalize employers & guest workers violating the program. I think it is laughable to believe that guest workers & employers will voluntarily sign up & comply with any guest worker program.
If you want everyone in the country treated like cows, sure, we can track them.
Line up next week for your identifying tattoo and microchip implant.
Michelle has written a lot of good articles. This is not one of them. O.K., three thousand people died in the WTC bombing and she supposes DHS should check the list of casulties. Hundreds of thousands of aliens die in this country each year, she gives no suggestion as how DHS should check which of these deaths are aliens.
Receiving a "Green Card" after someone's death can not be more emotional then the death of that individual at the hands of terrorists that could have been prevented had congress had the will to control our borders. Malkin arouses emotion getting into the touchy-feely aspect of dead people receiving "Green Cards" however, she gives no suggestion as how to fix the problem. A problem, I might add, that could only be fixed by congress instituting new laws that would require local civil officials to report the status of deceased. Hiring teams of people to search all the obituaries in the country on a daily basis would be too costly. Even then there would be some that would get missed.
As for the backlog she discusses...much of this was created after 9/11 when security checks were placed into the system. The people who are waiting for the so-called "Green Card" still have status whether or not they physically have the document in hand. For the most part these people are the honest immigrants.
No one reading this forum needs to be told that there are illegals in this country working and none of them have a green card to show their employers. What needs to be done is fine the hell out of employers who hire illegals and make it severe enough that they won't hire illegals. But again, congress doesn't have the will to give DHS the resources to enforce the laws that it writes. What a spineless bunch of bastards.
Michelle, I wish you'd write more on the massive fraud that goes on with our H1B visas that the government has failed to go after. I'd dare say that there are so-called business that are committing immigration fraud to the level that would make the Enron debacle look small in comparison.
Eugueni Kniazev's family should have reported his death to immigration officials. Its not a pleasant thing, but anyone who has had a death in the family knows that there are a lot of things to be settled upon the death of a family member. If he had insurance, the insurance agent could have helped them.
My understanding is that Michelle immigrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was young. So she could not petition her parents since they were already here. Her parents likely brought along any other siblings if they were under 21 years of age. Unless she went to the Philippines to get married to a Filippino national, she could not have petitioned any other family members. Only immediate family members can be petitioned.
I fail to see a massive "legal immigration crisis".
She can still petition for siblings over 21; it's called a "Fifth Preference" petition. Also, the "massive legal immigration crisis" is there, my friend. I've been a State Department visa officer -- in the Philippines, to boot! -- and I can tell you that we're committing a kind of national suicide thanks to our current immigration law.
Right, but its likely that her parents already did that before she was old enough to petition. You know they have their petitions filled out and ready to mail the day they rich the age of 21 when they can petition or when they have LPR status or have been naturalized...especially if their from the Philippines.
Any we have only our elected officials to thank for that. "INS" or the State Dept usually end up being whooping "persons". I am told that most if not all immigration offices have a staff of people to deal with congressmen who are looking our for their constituants, the un-Americans.
Good luck in the Philippines.
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