For the Biden Administration, National Security is ‘Mission Irrelevant’

USCIS Mission Statement underscores dangerous priorities.

The term “Mission Statement” has been defined as: a formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organization, or individual.

In other words, the mission statement concisely establishes the goals and priorities of an organization for both the general the public and for the employees of that organization.

The organization we will consider in my commentary today article is United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This agency operates under the aegis of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and is charged with adjudicating applications for various immigration benefits that include the permitting aliens to change immigration status in the United States to acquire political asylum, lawful immigrant status (signified by being issued a “Green Card”), and United States citizenship.

I have come to think of USCIS as “America’s locksmith” because aliens who has been granted lawful status may easily enter the United States through ports of entry and remain in the United States permanently.  For such aliens border walls are irrelevant.

The February 10, 2022 Epoch Times report, US Immigration Agency Changes Mission, Removes Key Phrases, began with this excerpt:

A key federal agency on Feb. 10 changed its mission statement, removing several key phrases.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) “upholds America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility with fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve,” the new mission statement says.

Under the old statement, the agency was described as “administer[ing] the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.”

USCIS, with approximately 19,000 employees, oversees legal immigration to the United States.

Ur Jaddou, the agency’s director, said the new statement “reflects the inclusive character of both our country and this agency,” adding, “The United States is and will remain a welcoming nation that embraces people from across the world who seek family reunification, employment or professional opportunities, and humanitarian protection.”

The clear difference between the two missions statements issued by the Trump administration, versus the Biden Administration is extremely worrying and helps to clearly delineate the stark contrasts between the two administrations.

The Biden Administration’s goals and priorities in many areas stand in stark contrast with the goals and priorities of the Trump administration that it replaced.  Arguable the greatest differences concern border security and immigration law enforcement.

President Trump understood that border security is synonymous with national security and our immigration laws are essential to protect America and Americans from threats to public health, national security and public safety while Biden and his administration have charted a very different and perilous course that utterly ignores these threats.

Under Trump the mission statement of USCIS took a balanced approach- maintaining America’s tradition as a welcoming nation, but prioritizing the need to protect Americans and the homeland.  Under Biden, there is no mention in that mission statement about protecting America or Americans but is all about welcoming everyone with no thought being given to implications that this may have for national security public safety.

For most folks immigration law enforcement is synonymous with the notion of border security and the Border Patrol which is charged with interdicting those who would enter the United States by evading the vital inspections process conducted at ports of entry by the Inspectors of CBP (Customs and Border Protection) the same element of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under which the Border Patrol operates.

However, as I have noted on my prior occasions and during my testimony before numerous Congressional hearings, the United States is a nation of 50 border states and therefore the enforcement of our immigration laws from within the interior of the United States, the mission of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is at least as important as is the need to secure our borders from the unlawful entry by individual who seek to evade the inspections process.

One of the critical responsibilities of ICE is to not only identify, investigate and arrest illegal aliens and aliens who are engaged in other criminal activities, but to conduct investigations into those who defraud the immigration system administered by USCIS, to seek lawful status by lying and/or concealing material facts that would prevent them from acquiring lawful status through the immigration benefits program such as political asylum, lawful immigrant status (as signified by being issued a “Green Card”) and ultimately, United States citizenship.  Many of these critical investigations are generally predicated on requests by USCIS when fraud is suspected.

As I noted in an extensive article I wrote some time ago, Immigration Fraud: Lies That Kill – 9/11 Commission identified immigration fraud as a key embedding tactic of terrorists:

The official report, 9/11 and Terrorist Travel – Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States focused specifically on the ability of the terrorists to travel around the world, enter the United States and ultimately embed themselves in the United States as they went about their deadly preparations and carry out an attack.  The preface of this report begins with this paragraph:

It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following pages, that it must be made one.

Page 46 and 47 of this report noted:

Once terrorists had entered the United States, their next challenge was to find a way to remain here. Their primary method was immigration fraud. For example, Yousef and Ajaj concocted bogus political asylum stories when they arrived in the United States.

The following paragraph is found on page 98 under the title “Immigration Benefits”:

Terrorists in the 1990s, as well as the September 11 hijackers, needed to find a way to stay in or embed themselves in the United States if their operational plans were to come to fruition. As already discussed, this could be accomplished legally by marrying an American citizen, achieving temporary worker status, or applying for asylum after entering. In many cases, the act of filing for an immigration benefit sufficed to permit the alien to remain in the country until the petition was adjudicated. Terrorists were free to conduct surveillance, coordinate operations, obtain and receive funding, go to school and learn English, make contacts in the United States, acquire necessary materials, and execute an attack.

Nevertheless, the Epoch Times report I cited above also includes this disturbing excerpt about the new mission statement:

Michael Knowles, president of AFGE Local 1924, said the union supports the statement.

He told The Epoch Times in an email that it “reflects the views of many of the employees who do this important work.”

The union represents USCIS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement workers. Both agencies sit inside the Department of Homeland Security.

Under Biden the entire workforce at USCIS, that should be dedicated to protecting America and Americans, have been indoctrinated to completely disregard their responsibilities to seek to uncover fraud and the threats such fraud might create.

Consider that on October 22, 2022 I wrote the article, Biden Administration Plans To Protect Immigration Fraudsters.

Long after Biden is gone, these employees will remain at USCIS.

Members of Congress who are concerned about national security and public safety should be demanding to be given, for review, the curriculum being taught to the USCIS employees at the academy and the critical elements of their job descriptions and their evaluations.

This insanity at USCIS should not come as a surprise, however. There is a Yiddish expression that says, “When the fish goes bad, it smells from the head.”

Back on December 7, 2021 I wrote about my concerns about Alejandro Mayorkas, who is now the Director of the DHS. My article was, Biden’s DHS: Department of Homeland Surrender; Alejandro Mayorkas, architect of DACA, picked by Biden to head DHS.

Mayorkas was the Director of USCIS under the Obama administration.

On March 20, 2013 I testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing on the topic, Building An Immigration System Worthy Of American Values.

My prepared testimony concluded with these two paragraphs that are even more pertinent today:

Law enforcement is at its best when it creates a climate of deterrence to convince those who might be contemplating violating the law that such an effort is likely to be discovered and that if discovered, adverse consequences will result for the law violators. Current policies and statements by the administration, in my view, encourages aspiring illegal aliens around the world to head for the United States. In effect the starter’s pistol has been fired and for these folks, the finish line to this race is the border of the United States.

Back when I was an INS special agent I recall that Doris Meissner who was, at the time, the commissioner of the INS, said that the agency needed to be “customer oriented.” Unfortunately, while I agree about the need to be customer oriented what Ms Meissner and too many politicians today seem to have forgotten is that the “customers” of the INS and of our government in general, are the citizens of the United States of America.

©Michael Cutler. All rights reserved.

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