Maybe They're With George's WMD

When I entered the workforce, I had to divorce myself of the idea that a business was run any differently than a junior high student council. Same problems arise from the same type of oversights, only instead of screwing up a homecoming celebration, money and human resources are usually affected.

As I observe the government more, I'm learning that they are not much different than a business. It's unnerving, however, to recognize that perhaps the junior high student council would have a better shot at keeping things in order - especially under the rule of a bully like George Bush.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency may have processed as many as 30,000 citizenship applications in 2005 without reviewing critical background files, thousands of which have been lost, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The 30,000 applications that may have been processed without so-called alien files in fiscal 2005 represented about 4 percent of the 715,000 total applications handled that year. The files, known as A-files, contain information such as arrest warrants and the results of immigration proceedings. CIS, a bureau within the Homeland Security Department, is responsible for about 55 million such documents.

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Now, before any National Security cheerleaders think I'm agreeing with them. Think again.

Homeland security is not the only reason the missing files are of great concern, the senators said. Missing files result in unnecessary delays for thousands of other legitimate immigrants trying to become U.S. citizens, they said.

(emphasis mine)

This is just one of many, MANY examples of a broken immigration system. Let me say it again and again and again - it encompasses a legion of problems that requires comprehensive reform. There are families whose future lies in the balance by these mistakes of incompetence.

I reject the premise that immigrants are terrorists, which is what the hardliners would love you to believe. The reality is that for every application misfiled by the government there is a web of humanity attached to it that suddenly finds itself the target of ire by the vigilantes and Great Wall™ supporters.