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US form used to screen immigrants doesn’t ask about ties to groups such as al-Qaeda or the Islamic State

May 16, 2017 1:20 pm By Robert Spencer

“Form N-400 asks various questions, including whether the applicant supports the Constitution or if they’ve ever been members of the Communist or World War II-era German Nazi parties, which are included by law. It also asks if the immigrant is in any way associated with any terrorist organizations but doesn’t list specific groups’ names, such as the Islamic State or al Qaida. ‘On both a symbolic and practical basis, this demonstrates a significant failure by the U.S. government,’ Sauter told TheDCNF. ‘If the government thinks it’s important to use these forms to ask people if they belong to specific hostile groups, why not include the groups that are trying to destroy us today, instead of ones that we were worried about decades ago?’”

Good question. Much draining of the swamp is needed, but it is proceeding very slowly, if at all.

“Fed Form Doesn’t Ask Immigrants’ About Terrorism Ties, Illegal Voting,” by Ethan Barton, Daily Caller, May 12, 2017:

Federal officials don’t compile crucial data, such as what terrorist organizations applicants are affiliated with or if they’ve ever illegally voted in an American election, on the form used to vet immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) doesn’t collect any statistics on how applicants answer questions on Form N-400, which is used to screen immigrants, according to the agency.

“We have completed our search and no records responsive to your request were located,” USCIS wrote in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Mark Sauter, a co-author of a homeland security textbook and former investigative journalist.

“This data is critical, it should be aggregated, it should be analyzed,” Sauter told TheDCNF. “If the U.S. government isn’t doing the most basic form of data collection and data mining, then what the heck is going on? In my estimate, every day they fail to collect data from the N-400 is a day the federal government is not protecting us.”

The data could be used for a variety of purposes, such as analyzing how immigrants from certain countries or regions answer questions, according to Sauter.

It could also be used to show how many applicants were rejected – or admitted – from U.S. citizenship after answering disqualifying questions.

“Having those questions and the results on that statistic would confirm that U.S. law is being adhered to in the naturalization process,” Heritage Foundation homeland security expert David Inserra told TheDCNF. “If they’re not reporting that data than you can’t query it.”

He added that info could be used to confirm immigrants’ applications for citizenship are rejected for providing disqualifying answers, such as having ties to terrorist groups.

Form N-400 asks various questions, including whether the applicant supports the Constitution or if they’ve ever been members of the Communist or World War II-era German Nazi parties, which are included by law. It also asks if the immigrant is in any way associated with any terrorist organizations but doesn’t list specific groups’ names, such as the Islamic State or al Qaida.

“On both a symbolic and practical basis, this demonstrates a significant failure by the U.S. government,” Sauter told TheDCNF. “If the government thinks it’s important to use these forms to ask people if they belong to specific hostile groups, why not include the groups that are trying to destroy us today, instead of ones that we were worried about decades ago?”

Immigrants seeking naturalization also face an interview where USCIS officials try determining if applicants are affiliated with specific terrorist groups, according to Inserra.

“In both cases, you are responding to the U.S. government, and everything you say can be used against you and can be used later,” Inserra told TheDCNF. “The lying to an immigration officer can be grounds for deportation. If you acquire citizenship as a result of fraud – not just mistakenly, but purposely trying to lie and mislead – then that is grounds for revocation of citizenship.”

A USCIS official confirmed that applicants have answered that they have ties to terrorist organizations on Form N-400. The agency did not respond to a DCNF request asking if it holds data on naturalization applicants’ answers to interview questions.

Regardless, an interview requires relying on bureaucrats asking questions and interpreting answers, whereas “a form is a standardized way of collecting information,” Sauter told TheDCNF.

Inserra, however, noted that interviews allow a dialogue, which can be used to gather more information than from a paper or digital application.

“I don’t particularly see a reason why they need to add terrorism to the form,” he told TheDCNF.

Form N-400 also asks if the immigrant applicant has “ever voted in any federal, state or local election in the United States.”

“There are laws prohibiting [immigrants from voting] and that would be a disqualifying action,” Inserra said. “That would be really interesting to know if they’ve occurred.”…

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Filed Under: Al-Qaeda, Featured, immigration, United States Tagged With: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)


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Comments

  1. Berengaria says

    May 16, 2017 at 1:28 pm

    It appears that our Country is Still Wide Open & assisting Muslims & ILLEGALS to Steal the American Dream. The “DREAMERS” who turn out to be Anti-American
    Bigots, are able to receive a free College Degree, while our Children are lucky to even receive a College Education.
    N-400 is a set form & has no real value or Meaning to the Invaders of America.

    • Philo sophy says

      May 16, 2017 at 9:02 pm

      You are true in saying that America is open for Islamic invasion knowingly. Historically Islam is war against established Nation, or war against establishment. Nothing more to say, America is on way of Islamization.

    • wool says

      May 17, 2017 at 6:56 am

      yes. White supremism is worst than islamic terrorism.the whites killed many christians and racism is the worst one.

      • AleX says

        May 17, 2017 at 12:38 pm

        Really, wool? White supremism, worse than islamic terrorism? Gimme an example of white supremist setting bombs and/or mowing people with trucks.
        Uh, I see. You must be a follower of that paedophile prophet… What was his name, again?

  2. no_one says

    May 16, 2017 at 2:04 pm

    Who would prevent them from lying. Who is going to investigate?

    • gravenimage says

      May 16, 2017 at 4:01 pm

      True–but not even asking is even more absurd.

      • mortimer says

        May 16, 2017 at 4:09 pm

        NOT ASKING is absurd, especially when they ARE ASKED whether they are or were a member of the Nazi Party.

        They should be asked whether they were associated or members of ANY terror group and they should ALL be listed.

        All Muslims should be given lie detector tests to determine whether they have allegiance to those groups.

        • Terry says

          May 16, 2017 at 5:43 pm

          Mortimer– define terror group.

          SOME beleive that they are fighting for freedom.

          In Syria, when Kerry was S O S there were over ONE HUNDRED DIFFERENT GROUPS.

          That did not (as best I recall) include ISIS & Al Queida and their affiliates.

          How many splinter groups are there now? I have no idea. Same in Somalia; same in Afghanistan.

          In Iraq, there were numerous groups, then some were co-opted by the US and/or Britain.

          My views.

          However, I agree- the questions should be updated. And, the lead time shortened.

        • roger woodhouse says

          May 17, 2017 at 5:24 am

          Being a muslim makes you a member of a terrorist organisation.It is one and the same.

      • kessler says

        May 17, 2017 at 6:05 am

        I see little point in these questionnaires. Muslims are masters of lies and deceit. But yes, to make it less absurd, at least include all the present terrorist groups from the region in questions.
        The only way to truly identify who are in support of a Western democracy and who is going to work against it – this should be the core of the immigration process – a face to face conversation with each applicant is necessary.
        – Show them satirical cartoons of Muhammed and explain that the ability to depict any religious figure is not an offence in this part of the world. Then ask them what they think.
        – Show them pictures of a gay parade and ask them if they think homosexuality is a punishable sin
        – Ask them if they feel Sharia law is superior to Western manmade laws
        – Ask them how they would react if their children converted to Christianity
        – Ask them if they consider non-muslims, including Jews, equal to Muslims
        – If from Syria, ask them how they would like to see the future post-Assad – Sharia or pluralism.

        These questions would help root out the Islamists – the ones who never would consider adapting to a Western democracy, but actively work against us. These stealth Jihadists are posing a greater threat to our society than the ones waging the bloody warfare and MUST be rooted out.

        • Creole Gumbo says

          May 17, 2017 at 7:05 am

          It is far simpler to ask “Are you a Muslim.”

        • AleX says

          May 17, 2017 at 12:56 pm

          In addition to what you have said, Kessler, applicants should be warned that enforcing the wearing of the hijab on their daughters under the age of 18 will be considered child abuse and will be sanctioned accordingly by the authorities.

    • no_one says

      May 16, 2017 at 6:05 pm

      You are all very naive. I have reasons to believe that some former members of an Eastern European Communist party are US citizens and some are Canadians already. Not sure if Canada asks such questions.

      • billdeserthills says

        May 17, 2017 at 4:21 am

        You’re too late, some former nazi scientists already done got in–Nobody seems to have noticed until after most of them were already buried here…

    • Jeanette says

      May 17, 2017 at 11:01 am

      Having the lie in writing could be very useful later.

  3. ermom says

    May 16, 2017 at 2:41 pm

    Since Muslims may use TAQIYYA (lying to protect or promote Islam) , no piece of paper, signature, nor oath can be considered truthful or valid. It’s Qur’anic.

    • Rufolino says

      May 17, 2017 at 3:21 am

      Yes Ermom, what a farce !

      As if anyone wanting to enter the United States would answer “yes” to a question which would thus prevent them from getting what they wanted !

      Demonstrates how the current so-called “vetting procedure” is almost a waste of time.

  4. Charli Main says

    May 16, 2017 at 2:57 pm

    In Britain, bleeding heart and Muslim hugging organisations actually tutor illegal immigrants, that have slung into the country in the back of lorries et al, on what sob story to feed immigration officials.

    When interviewed by immigration officials, women have been coached to claim that they will be gang raped, tortured, sexually mutilated and sold off as sex slaves, if they are sent back to whatever shithole they have run away from.

    Male economic migrants are coached to feed the authorities similar stories.

    • Terry says

      May 16, 2017 at 5:47 pm

      back when Reagan was President, and their was an amnesty- for those with no felony arrests- and the people had to describe how they came to the US- (in the Miami, FL area, where there is a large Hispanic population, and the Mexicans and Latin Americans fit in (in Homestead-south of Miami, lots of agricultural work) I saw many people-all with a minor variation- ” a coyote took their money, led them across the Rio Grande, and left them there, to fend for themselves, and they ( fill in the blank) to get to the Miami area.

  5. PAT says

    May 16, 2017 at 3:10 pm

    WHY ARE THEY ASKING IF THESE PEOPLE HAVE EVER VOTED IN A U.S. ELECTION? DO THE OFFICIALS THINK THEY MAILED IN A BALLOT FROM THE MIDDLE EAST? LYING IS PART OF THEIR IDEOLOGY SO DON’T EXPECT ONE BIT OF TRUTH FROM THESE ANCIENT LIVING TERRORISTS. THE ONLY TRUTH THEY WILL TELL YOU IS THAT THEY PLAN ON CONCEIVING WAY MORE CHILDREN THAN AMERICANS DO AND SHARE THEIR HUSBAND WITH SEVERAL OTHER WIVES. WELFARE LEECHES NEED TO TAKE THE FIRST CAMEL EXPRESS HEADED FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

    • gravenimage says

      May 16, 2017 at 4:05 pm

      Please don’t use all caps, unless your keyboard is broken. It does not help you get your message across.

  6. gravenimage says

    May 16, 2017 at 3:57 pm

    US form used to screen immigrants doesn’t ask about ties to groups such as al-Qaeda or the Islamic State
    ………………………..

    And yet, so many keep assuring us how ridiculous it is that we are concerned over terrorists among immigrants, since they are subject to such “extreme vetting”…

    Instead, this doesn’t even seem to be the most basic vetting.

  7. Donald R Laster Jr says

    May 16, 2017 at 5:04 pm

    If they are Islamics they are part of a terrorist group by definition. People need to learn Islam’s teachings and history.

    • Debi Brand says

      May 17, 2017 at 2:10 am

      Well stated, D.R.L.J.

  8. Lu says

    May 16, 2017 at 5:04 pm

    As a fairly new citizen I have to confirm that the form is asking questions being a tad off-topic.

    Being European by birth and admiring deeply the Forefathers I had no problem to answer the questions and become of many (citizens of the land of the free).

    Long may it wave … over the land of the free and the home of the brave.

  9. rubiconcrest says

    May 16, 2017 at 7:06 pm

    Well maybe it should be a little vague. After all haven’t we heard Muslims say that Jihad is not terrorism? Groups change names, there are hundreds and new emerging ones. Maybe they are acting alone? We should cast as wide a net as possible so simply stating terrorism is enough but it would be better to ask if they had every considered becoming a Jihadi. Of course a polygraph test would be the best thing.

  10. Gene says

    May 17, 2017 at 1:51 am

    Maybe we could ask them if they ever fought for Attila the Hun. That might be useful.

    Unfortunately, we have the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to prevent the Government from doing what it’s required to do and needs to do.

  11. Irene Brekelmans says

    May 17, 2017 at 3:10 am

    Mr. Robert Spencer, I hope your health is better now. It just shows you, you can’t trust everybody, so pls be careful . Jihad watch needs you and you have done everything in such a calm way and respectfully. Thank you and I thank all the people who have made so many good peaces and have taken so much time to verify things and looked up the verses. Thanks

  12. mach37 says

    May 17, 2017 at 3:48 am

    Asking those questions seems foolish to me. Might be more informative to ask it they are Shiite, Sunni, Baha’i, Sufi, Alawi, Druze, Shi’ah — oh never mind, there are too many branches.

  13. Frank Courtney says

    May 17, 2017 at 4:08 am

    Of course US federal officials do not ask these questions. To do so would be “Islamophobic”. The swamp’s level is still high, close to overflowing.

  14. Linda Goudsmit says

    May 17, 2017 at 6:33 am

    This is not a “failure” by the US government it is part of the deliberate signature policy of Barack Obama designed to deny the obvious connections between Islam and terrorism. Obama scrubbed any and all mention of Islamic jihad from Homeland security questionnaires and manuals. Obama colluded with the mainstream media to bury stories and statistics about Muslim violence in America and Europe. Barack Hussein Obama endangered America by practicing TAQIYYA – lying in the service of Islam – for eight years. Obama welcomed terrorist groups starting with the Muslim Brotherhood and continues to deny the very obvious truth that a terrorist screaming Allah Akbar before slaughtering innocent people is an Islamist. Terrorism and jihad have EVERYTHING to do with Islam. Barack Obama seeded the US government with Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR operatives and sympathizers. President Donald Trump must declare them terrorist organizations and drain them from the swamp.

  15. Sarah says

    May 17, 2017 at 7:41 am

    Call me intolerant or extremely pig-headed, but in today’s day and age of globalism and the internet and social media and all that – I would have thought that rather than asking a bunch of ridiculous questions and hoping for honest responses, we would instead have the expectation of the individual in question being able to PROVE that they are not a threat or a poor choice for residency,

    Let’s face it. These migrants, wherever they are from, whichever nation they are wanting to get to, they may be escaping all sorts of horrors and difficulties, they may have left in a panicked rush, but they all have good quality clothing on their bodies that looks new, well kept and washed. They’re all holding smart phones, look very well fed and in good health. These are not poor people with nothing but the rags on their backs to their names. All of this costs money. People with that kind of cash do not come from backgrounds where they’ve spent their lives farming dirt and stones. The migrants we see, these are the ‘middle class’ equivalent from the third world.

    Hell, our own treasonous politician’s (especially the European ones) even outright stated that these are the ‘doctors, teachers, accountants and engineers’ who are coming in. People like that, (even though the reality is that we’re getting the dregs of the third world) – all have past’s. Identifiable, traceable, track-able pasts.

    Frankly, until someone can unequivocally prove that they are not a risk in any way shape or form to us, then they should not be allowed to step foot over our borders, nor be promised a single thing. They can head to the nearest refugee camp. They are not nice places, or so I hear – but they’re not the horrific homes that these people are supposedly fleeing from. Funny how they don’t want the refugee camps, that speaks volumes. Its also funny how its silently become a ‘human right’ to rock up to any old country you wish, demand to be let in and to be given EVERYTHING, including permanent residency – and we do it.

    None of this add’s up. None of it. Even a blind man with the IQ of Forrest Gump can see that, nowadays. The stories we’re told don’t line up with the outcomes we see. They don’t even lie consistently to us anymore.

    I tell you what. I’m Aussie. If my nation descended into a war torn nightmare and I managed to escape (although admittedly this would be a trial in itself given I live on a dirty big island in the middle of the ocean), I would want to be surrounded by those of my kind. Because its safe, its familiar. Its what I know – it is comforting and it is normal to me. The ABSOLUTE last thing I’d want is to avoid any and all of my own kind, by avoiding the camps and then bolting off to, say, Pakistan – where the culture, laws and society are completely alien to me. Why the hell would I want to do that? What rational human being would do that? Islam raises nutcases, but amazingly rational nutcases. None of this makes any sense.

    There would be 2 reasons only, for my wanting to wind up in Pakistan. Either because I’m on the run and trying to avoid those of my kind (and ask yourself WHY I would want that and be doing that – because it speaks volumes) or, Pakistan can offer me a whole new life that far exceeds anything I would ever be ‘given’ in my home nation or any other nation similar to my own with similar cultural laws and values. Essentially, if I were a self entitled piece of work who wanted a great new life on a platter (and in this bizarre world I’m describing, its Pakistan of all places, that can offer me that).

    Either way, the Pakistanis would be right to be highly suspicious of me and to boot my self entitled and highly shifty arse right back out of there as soon as I rocked up, with my hands out. And when the Pakistanis hand me a bit of paper asking me questions that are so clearly designed to root out the ‘undesirables’; I’d babble literally anything at all, if I felt it would shut those stupid Pakistanis up – and get me what I want. Its pure human self interest. Interestingly, Islam seems to provide far more than its fair share of self entitled, greedy animals.

    This whole idea of asking questions to this horde of locust’s and hoping we can trust them to provide honest answers is beyond the pale. There is a simple way to safeguard the civilized world from Islamic terrorism or violence etc. Two questions. 1. Are you a Muslim, or have you ever been a Muslim and 2. Have you ever lived in a nation where 30% or more of the population identifies as Muslim.

    If the answer is yes to either, then ban them and everyone they’re related to, whether by blood or marriage. No appeals, no changes. Permanently deny them any entry for any reason.

    You cannot have violence, terrorism, slaughter or general crime caused in the name of Islam in your country, if you don’t have any Muslims in the country. Time to send the lot of them off, to any Islamic nation of their choosing and free the rest of the world from the plague that they are.

  16. MA says

    May 17, 2017 at 8:05 pm

    I don’t see the point of explicitly asking. It should be obvious that if they are al-Qaeda or Islamic State operatives they’re not going to be stupid enough to admit it. Other methods must be used.

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