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Immigration boss who barred feds from SB jihad terror suspect up for award, but agency won’t say why

Jun 25, 2016 11:46 am By Robert Spencer

“Irene Martin heads the San Bernardino U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office, where last December, she allegedly blocked five armed Department of Homeland Security agents from the man authorities say supplied the firepower in the deadly attack a day earlier. Although an Inspector General’s report found she acted improperly, and then lied to investigators, FoxNews.com has learned she has been nominated for the Secretary’s Award for Valor.”

Does the DHS Secretary not know that Martin hindered the San Bernardino jihad terror investigation and then lied about it? Or does he not care? Or could that be, in an administration that regularly lies about and obfuscates the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat, what she is being given the award for?

Irene Martin

“Immigration boss who barred feds from terror suspect up for award, but agency won’t say why,” by Malia Zimmerman, FoxNews.com, June 23, 2016:

A U.S. immigration official blamed in a federal report for barring law enforcement agents from a suspect in the San Bernardino terror attack has been nominated for a prestigious agency award – but her bosses in Washington refuse to say what she did to earn consideration.

Irene Martin heads the San Bernardino U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office, where last December, she allegedly blocked five armed Department of Homeland Security agents from the man authorities say supplied the firepower in the deadly attack a day earlier. Although an Inspector General’s report found she acted improperly, and then lied to investigators, FoxNews.com has learned she has been nominated for the Secretary’s Award for Valor.

“To give Irene Martin an award for valor is insulting to all the prior awardees – the agents and officers who truly displayed valor and risked their lives to save someone else,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based research institute.

Department of Homeland Security officials declined to say what Martin did to merit consideration for the award, which is described as “the highest departmental recognition for extraordinary acts of valor by an employee or group, occurring while on or off duty” and is reserved for “those who have demonstrated extraordinary courage in a highly dangerous, life-threatening situation or emergency under extreme stress and involving a specific act of valor, such as saving another person’s life or property.”

Past valor award recipients include government employees who have saved people from burning cars, sinking ships and weapon- wielding assailants.

FoxNews.com was told the information could only be released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, which has been lodged.

Martin was blamed for touching off a turf war that came to light when whistle blowers told Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., about the tense, Dec. 3, 2015 incident. It came a day after Tashfeen Malik and Syed Farook killed 14 and wounded 22 in the terror attack. Authorities believe Enrique Marquez, who had an appointment with Martin’s staff when the authorities showed up, gave them the guns used in the attack.

The potential award for Martin was announced on a conference call from high-ranking USCIS officials in Washington during a staff meeting held at the San Bernardino office where Martin also was present, sources told FoxNews.com. The USCIS and the agents who had been sent to detain Marquez are part of DHS.

The nomination from Martin’s superiors was stunning to staff members because it was announced just days after a June 1 DHS Inspector General’s report found Martin improperly hindered the work of five armed agents on site just 24 hours after the attack.

Johnson held two Senate hearings about the incident in May and requested that the Inspector General’s investigation.

The report noted DHS agents were sent to the USCIS building to arrest Marquez, who authorities were frantically trying to track down the day after the terror attack at an office Christmas party. Marquez, it turned out, had not shown up for his scheduled appointment at the USCIS building, but Martin kept agents waiting 30 minutes before meeting with them, and another hour before she turned over the USCIS file on Marquez.

Marquez was eventually arrested and is being held on charges related to supplying the guns as well as marriage fraud.

Martin also lied to the Inspector General’s investigators, according to the June 6 report, about her role in what has been characterized as a turf battle. Lying to federal investigators is a felony and can result in dismissal and criminal charges.

“We concluded that the USCIS Field Office Director at the San Bernardino office improperly delayed … agents from conducting a lawful and routine law enforcement action,” the report stated. “We have also …

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Filed Under: Featured, Jihad in the U.S., Useful idiots Tagged With: Department of Homeland Security, Irene Martin


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Comments

  1. Jack Everett says

    Jun 25, 2016 at 12:03 pm

    Our government wants these attacks to keep happening. America has become a military establishment that has no use for the constitution it continues to ignore. Arming known terrorists to keep the war machine alive is all that counts now.

    • Jay Boo says

      Jun 25, 2016 at 12:37 pm

      Revoke her citizenship and deport her to some Islamic hell-hole, or at least put her on trial for treason along with Hillary.

      • Kathy Brown, Esq. says

        Jun 25, 2016 at 7:43 pm

        If only…

        But let’s be fair. She WAS valorous. She protected the muslim terrorists. This comes right from the top, from the Muslim In Chief.

  2. billybob says

    Jun 25, 2016 at 12:10 pm

    The article above was inadvertently cut short. Here is the remainder…

    “We concluded that the USCIS Field Office Director at the San Bernardino office improperly delayed … agents from conducting a lawful and routine law enforcement action,” the report stated. “We have also concluded that the Field Office Director was not candid with OIG investigators during her interview.”

    Arlen Morales, spokesman for the DHS Inspector General, would not confirm whether his agency had made a potential criminal referral involving Martin’s testimony to the US Department of Justice, saying the Inspector General does not discuss any ongoing work.

    Vaughan suspects the award could be a further politicization of the Dec. 3 incident, which left DHS law enforcement officials furious and at a disadvantage as they tried to close in on any accomplices to the Dec. 2 terror attack.

    “Irene Martin’s nomination for this valor award is scandalous,” said Vaughan.

    • eduardo odraude says

      Jun 25, 2016 at 12:42 pm

      Probably not inadvertently cut short. Legally one cannot quote whole articles, generally speaking.

    • Angemon says

      Jun 25, 2016 at 2:20 pm

      “Scandalous” doesn’t even begin to describe it…

  3. Jay Boo says

    Jun 25, 2016 at 12:16 pm

    Hiding her footprints and covering her path.

    • MS Case says

      Jun 26, 2016 at 11:00 pm

      Was this a hired or appointed position???Makes no difference it all comes from the top hired or appointed.

  4. Nigel GFF says

    Jun 25, 2016 at 12:39 pm

    It has been said many times, but ‘you really couldn’t make this stuff up’.
    Are we living in a fantastical world? Our dreams have turned into nightmares in which Kafkaesque realities are the norm. The agents should rightly get an award for not throwing a punch. These are strange days we live in. Not long now, vote the way you must.

  5. Iggy A says

    Jun 25, 2016 at 1:03 pm

    Maybe this is the kind of civil leadership they have in mind for putting into the military to lead it better….?

    I can’t wait to see that play out.

    Is it unthinkable that our military would outright revolt…like in a Turkey of the past…?

  6. jewdog says

    Jun 25, 2016 at 3:43 pm

    Marriage fraud? Maybe she merited the award for protecting an illegal immigrant criminal. from xenophobic, racist DHS agents. They could have been Trump supporters, or worse.

  7. mortimer says

    Jun 25, 2016 at 5:59 pm

    If they are awarding her for POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, then give her an award called the POLITICAL CORRECTNESS MEDAL.

  8. UriahB says

    Jun 25, 2016 at 9:22 pm

    Yes award for valor. Valerie, Abedeen, Loretta, Ohbamma, Rot from the head down. Well deserved!

  9. linnte says

    Jun 25, 2016 at 9:34 pm

    Incredible in the true sense of the word!

  10. Eric Novak says

    Jun 26, 2016 at 3:07 am

    Robert or someone at the jihadwatch.org organization needs to shove this unbelievable story through whatever channels necessary to the Trump campaign. I don’t comment on these reports, but this is surreal. The US government is occupied by enemy hostiles.

    • Angemon says

      Jun 26, 2016 at 12:38 pm

      Maybe Trump supporters could tweet it to him – I heard Trump reads ALL the tweets.

      • Sovereign Man says

        Jun 26, 2016 at 4:00 pm

        Angemon, you are a worthless troll. Get a life.

        • Angemon says

          Jun 26, 2016 at 4:19 pm

          http://cdn.smosh.com/sites/default/files/ftpuploads/bloguploads/meme-tears-evilcat.jpg

        • linnte says

          Jun 26, 2016 at 4:37 pm

          Excuse me? What qualifies his response of “Trump reads all tweets” as being a troll? Trump does read his tweets, and even uses some of them in his speeches.

  11. Baucent says

    Jun 26, 2016 at 5:16 am

    “Martin kept agents waiting 30 minutes before meeting with them, and another hour before she turned over the USCIS file on Marquez.”

    There it is. Valor in resisting 5 armed Federal agents.

  12. Carolyne says

    Jun 26, 2016 at 11:31 am

    Her actions to subvert the investigation are likely why she received the reward. That’s the government we have these days. Pro-Muslim and anti-American.

  13. Bill says

    Jun 26, 2016 at 1:58 pm

    She gets the award for obstructing an investigation into Lord Obama’s treasonous regime. That is considered heroic in Democrat Party circles. We have so many heroes to choose from in the IRS, the Treasury Department and the State Department, she must have done something to shine above that competition.

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