We just granted citizenship to more than 858 folks who shouldn’t have been legalized – as in folks who come from “countries of concern” with respect to our national security and/or nations with high rates of immigration fraud.  Apparently the entire batch of 858 had pending deportation orders.  But now they’ve hit paydirt, and they’re U.S. citizens.  Ain’t that just grand?

The Department of Homeland Security, always late to the party, discovered that the gang of 858 slipped through the cracks because their fingerprints were not in DHS’s database.  As a result, their use of aliases and/or different birthdates on their applications went unchecked.

The DHS report doesn’t include the names of any of our new little citizen friends, but auditors confirmed that all 858 were from “special interest countries.”  Although the report doesn’t identify the specific countries, let’s just say “special” doesn’t bode well.  As noted at the outset, the countries of origin are places that pose threats to our national security and/or are places where immigration fraud runs rampant.

The Associated Press reports:

Mistakenly awarding citizenship to someone ordered deported can have serious consequences because U.S. citizens can typically apply for and receive security clearances or take security-sensitive jobs.

You don’t say!

The report continues:

At least three of the immigrants-turned-citizens were able to acquire aviation or transportation worker credentials, granting them access to secure areas in airports or maritime facilities and vessels. Their credentials were revoked after they were identified as having been granted citizenship improperly, Roth said in his report.

A fourth person is now a law enforcement officer.

Excuse me, but why did the three merely have their credentials revoked?  Why wasn’t their citizenship revoked, followed by a swift boot out of the country?  Same goes for the fourth who is in law enforcement.  And where might the other 854 be?

How fast can we get more stupid?

Apparently very.  And very.

Hat tip: Yahoo News

Thomas Lifson adds:

Now that we have established the incompetence of DHS vetting of immigrants, can we please start openly laughing at President Obama and Hillary Cinton when they promise that the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugess they want to bring to our shores will be fully vetted?

Does anyone expect that there will be anyone fired over this?