[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 8 (Monday, February 9, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S505-S506]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             CONCERNING RECENT NATURALIZATION DEVELOPMENTS

  Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I come to the floor today in my capacity 
as chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee to call my colleagues' 
attention to some recent developments in the naturalization area, some 
of which are extremely serious.
  As many of you may have read in today's Washington Post or the Los 
Angeles Times, Coopers & Lybrand today unveiled its recommendations to 
the Justice Department for reengineering the naturalization process. 
After a year-long review, Coopers & Lybrand has developed what it is 
calling a ``blueprint for a new naturalization process,'' which would 
involve a complete overhaul of that process. Given what we have seen in 
the past in this area--particularly in the area of criminal background 
checks--a reworking of the entire process is certainly needed and 
Congress should be involved in any redesign. Coopers & Lybrand has 
prepared us with what is essentially a solid outline for a streamlined, 
more automated and more centralized naturalization system. Of course, 
many details remain to be worked out, but I am

[[Page S506]]

genuinely pleased with many aspects of the Coopers & Lybrand 
recommendations for redesigning the process. I hope the administration 
will take those recommendations seriously. For far too long, the 
naturalization process has been characterized by intolerable backlogs, 
very poor customer service, and, of course, unfortunate examples of 
outright fraud and mismanagement.

  Unfortunately, just today we also learned the results of a separate 
review of the current naturalization process. That review was conducted 
by the Department of Justice and by KPMG Peat Marwick. In a review of 
roughly 5,500 naturalization files selected at random over a 1-year 
period, it was determined that 90.8 percent of the files contained at 
least one significant processing error, and a total of 87.7 percent of 
the files had insufficient documentation in the file to support a 
proper naturalization decision.
  The bottom line is that we can be confident that naturalization was 
proper in only 8.6 percent of the 1,049,867 cases naturalized between 
August 1995 and September 1996. Mr. President, clearly these statistics 
are alarming and appalling. I don't doubt that most of the cases 
involved were, in fact, properly naturalized. But because of the system 
that is currently in place, we not only have enormous backlogs in the 
naturalization process but we cannot determine on a case-by-case basis 
whether naturalization decisions have been made correctly.
  In my judgment, any redesign of the naturalization process must 
ensure a 100 percent level of compliance. So, in the coming weeks, I 
plan to hold hearings at which the Senate Immigration Subcommittee can 
explore the Coopers & Lybrand proposal--which at this point is simply a 
blueprint--in more detail and so that we can get to the bottom of the 
complete breakdown of the process I have described here today.
  In particular, we need to examine some open issues in the redesign 
proposal, such as who would conduct the tests that are given with 
respect to English proficiency and civics and what those tests should 
contain. Given the recent indictments in California for fraud in 
citizenship testing, in which 20 defendants have been indicted for 
nationwide fraud in this area, we must take a close look at the extent 
of the fraud in the testing process and we must reform the system to 
eradicate any future wrongdoing in connection with citizenship testing.
  As a proponent of legal immigration and the value of naturalization, 
I do not come at this in any way trying to undercut the naturalization 
system. Yet recent information suggests such a complete breakdown that 
the process has to be redesigned to eradicate the fraud and the 
mismanagement that has characterized this system.
  What we need to do is strike the right balance, Mr. President, so 
that the people who deserve and have the right to be naturalized and 
become citizens have the opportunity to do so in a timely manner, and 
so that everyone, both the people who are waiting in those lines who 
ultimately will become naturalized and those who are already citizens, 
will have confidence that the people who are becoming citizens have met 
the standards and the criteria which the Congress has established for 
doing so. That means, Mr. President, close scrutiny of the current 
system, close scrutiny of the proposed recommendations by Coopers & 
Lybrand, and action, I believe, ultimately by the INS and Congress to 
move us in the right direction.
  I am very disturbed by the report we received today, but I hope that 
will form the basis for all of us to work together to find the right 
solutions.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________