Green-card quota seen as undercutting security

Stephen Dinan:

Immigration officials said yesterday that every application for a green card is subject to background checks, but union officials said managers' efforts to reduce a backlog of applicants mean adjudicators cut corners and could be letting in the wrong people.

"The push to reduce the backlog has compromised the integrity of the system," said Kevin Tinker, an official with the National Homeland Security Council (NHSC), a part of the American Federation of Government Employees. "The average adjudicator is not sure whether the decision he's making is the right decision. He doesn't have the time."

He said he knew of several customer-service centers where adjudicators feel they are "rubber-stamping" applications in order to make performance quotas.

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