Immigration Law

TIMES REPORTS ON USCIS SEX FOR GREEN CARDS SCANDAL

By Greg Siskind

Several of you have linked to this really outrageous story from this morning's New York Times front page. Were it only a one time incident, it would be easy to dismiss as a bad apple. But this is not the first time I've reported on a scandal like this on this blog. And it's just one type of corruption in a broad range. Most examiners at USCIS are decent people just trying to do a difficult job. But there is a subculture at the agency comprised of abusive individuals who probably were bullied themselves at one point in life and now take their revenge on the immigrants who are at their mercy. I don't know how the agency can identify this minority within the agency, but when they don't stories like these become front page scandals. One suggestion - have customer-friendly, well-publicized systems to report abusive behavior by examiners and then take those complaints seriously. Make an anonymous reporting system so people don't feel intimidated in making their complaints (obviously with safeguards to prevent people from being punished based on false reports).

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on March 21, 2008 (boomark / email).