Refugee fraud is “easy to commit” but it’s “not easy to investigate,” Department of Homeland Security officials admit in an internal memo made public Thursday.
“Bad actors” have “exploited” the refugee program, according to the memo obtained by the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee and reviewed by the Washington Times. “Refugee fraud is easy to commit, yet not easy to investigate.”
Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz confronted Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldana with the memo in an oversight hearing Thursday, asking her to confirm its authenticity.
“I have never seen this document before,” Saldana said after reviewing the memo.
The news comes on the heels of President Obama’s decision to admit more than 110,000 new refugees in the next year, a far cry from the typical 70,000 number. The administration insists the vetting process is adequately thorough, as it comes under fire from lawmakers and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who are concerned terrorists or would-be terrorists could exploit the program.
Department of State spokesman John Kirby conceded that Islamic State terrorists have in fact tried to gain admittance into the U.S. through the refugee program in an interview Wednesday.
“I wouldn’t debate the fact that there’s the potential for ISIS terrorists to try to insert themselves,” he said on Fox News. “And we’ve seen that in some of the refugee camps in Jordan and in Turkey, where they try to insert themselves into the population.”
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