More than 800 immigrants mistakenly granted citizenship

– More than 800 illegal immigrants from countries of concern who were set for deportation were mistakenly granted US citizenship because the Department of Homeland Security didn’t have their fingerprints on file, according to an internal audit released Monday. The department’s inspector general, John Roth, found that these individuals came from countries with high rates of immigration fraud or were registered as national security concerns. The report did not identify the countries.

The FBI repository is missing these records because fingerprint records collected from immigration enforcement encounters were not consistently sent to the bureau.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Neema Hakim told CNN that “DHS is and has been taking steps to address this issue” including working to digitize the 1990s-era fingerprint records.

The inspector general report describes the fingerprint records as “incomplete”.

DHS said in an emailed statement that an initial review of these cases suggest that some of the individuals may have ultimately qualified for citizenship, and that the lack of digital fingerprint records does not necessarily mean they committed fraud.

Hundreds of naturalized USA citizens should not have been made Americans, a new federal report finds.

At least three of those who were mistakenly granted citizenship were able to use their citizenship to get jobs in security-sensitive fields, including work at commercial airports and maritime facilities. Their credentials were revoked after they were identified as having been granted citizenship improperly, Roth said in his report.

The problem, according to the audit, is tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and criminal aliens whose files are so old that their fingerprints are still on paper cards.

The report noted that the department has concurred with its recommendations and has begun implementing corrective actions.

“Where the DHS review process finds that naturalization was obtained fraudulently, DHS will appropriately refer the case to the Department of Justice for civil or criminal proceedings, including for denaturalization”, Hakim said.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has called for immigration bans targeted at countries with connections to terrorism.