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Vice President, President's Deputy Chief of Staff
Intended to Use Citizenship USA for Political Purposes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 7, 2000
WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Immigration and Claims
Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tx.) asserted today during oversight
hearings that the evidence could "lead to the conclusion that the Vice
President, The President’s Deputy Chief of Staff, and the President’s
Director of Special Projects intended to use Citizenship USA (CUSA) for
partisan political purposes".
CUSA is the program the Administration implemented that
tripled the number of individuals granted citizenship immediately prior to
the 1996 election.
Smith said, "Given the evidence and the lack of
cooperation by these officials, the American people have every right to be
suspicious of their motives and actions. In my opinion, the suspicion that
there was an attempt to use a government agency for partisan political
purposes is justified".
Following extraordinary efforts of the Vice President
and the White House staff to pressure the Immigration and Naturalization
service into speeding naturalizations, efforts documented by the Department
of Justice Inspector General, the naturalization process completely broke
down. The accounting firm of KPMG Peat Marwick found that more than 90
percent of all CUSA cases were adjudicated improperly, including 70 percent
with defective or non-existent finger print checks. And more than 11,000
aliens had criminal records and the INS naturalized them despite their
disqualifying records.
The Inspector General’s report concluded "the
evidence shows that INS’ representations concerning CUSA processing, like
the fingerprint checking procedures themselves, were wholly
unreliable". According to the Inspector General, the CUSA program was
"poorly managed," and the INS was "negligent" and
"reckless" and guilty of "malfeasance."
Committee on the Judiciary, Chairman, Subcommittee on
Immigration and Claims * Chairman, Committee on Standards of Official
Conduct * Committee on Science
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