美國錯誤批准幾百名移民的美國公民身份大綱

The U.S. government has mistakenly granted citizenship to more than 800 immigrants that it was supposed to have deported.

An internal Homeland Security Department audit released Monday found the 858 immigrants came from countries that pose a national security risk to the United States or countries with high rates of immigration fraud. The report did not identify the countries.

The Homeland Security Department's Inspector General John Roth said the immigrants used different names or birth dates to apply for citizenship. He said the mistakes happened because the applicants' fingerprints were missing from government databases.

"This situation created opportunities for individuals to gain the rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship through fraud," Roth said.

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. The Department of Homeland Security say all three have had their security credentials revoked. A fourth person has become a law enforcement officer. Investigators last year identified another 953 cases that also appear suspicious.

The Department of Homeland Security says the report highlights what has long been a challenge for immigration officials -- the fact that old paper-based records containing fingerprints cannot be searched electronically.

The audit recommends that paper fingerprints be digitized and added to the government's database. It also recommends that officials create a system to evaluate the hundreds of people who were mistakenly approved for citizenship.

Charges have been brought in just two of the cases.

Immigrants are required to disclose any previous aliases they have used with immigration officials as well as their immigration history, but they sometimes omit that information.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made the vetting of immigrants a central part of his platform. He has called for a temporary ban on immigration from countries "compromised by terrorism" until a stronger vetting process can be put in place.美國政府錯誤地批准了八百多名本該被驅逐出境的移民的公民申請。

星期一公佈的對美國國土安全局進行的一個內部審計發現，有858名移民是來自那些對美國國家安全構成威脅，或是移民造假比率很高的國家。報告沒有列出這些國家的名字。

美國國土安全局檢察長約翰·羅斯說，這些移民使用不同的名字或出生日期申請公民身份。他說，這些錯誤的發生，是因爲政府數據庫裏沒有找到申請人的指紋。

羅斯說，“這個情況給那些指望通過作假手段獲得公民權利和優待的人創造了機會。”

這次誤得公民身份的人當中，至少有三個人利用公民身份在安全敏感度較高的行業找到了工作，比如商業機場和海事機構。國土安全局表示，這三個人的身份證明已被吊銷。還有一人成爲了執法官員。調查人員去年確認還有953個案子也令人懷疑。

國土安全局表示，這個審計報告提出了移民官員長期面臨的一個困難，那就是，舊的紙質檔案裏面的指紋無法通過電子搜尋找到。

審計報告建議，對紙質指紋進行數碼化處理，然後添加到政府的數據庫裏。報告還建議政府設立一個系統，對數百名錯誤獲得公民身份的人進行評估。

目前被有關方面提出起訴的只有兩起案子。

按規定，移民必須提供他們在過去與移民局打交道時使用過的別名，以及他們的移民歷史。但是移民有時會略去這些信息。

共和黨總統候選人川普一直把移民審批工作列爲他競選中的核心問題。他提議在審批程序得到加強以前，對來自“深受恐怖主義影響”的國家的移民申請實行臨時凍結。