Database: National Security Vetting Failures
The Center for Immigration Studies’ Vetting Failure Database presents the first known collection of preventable federal government vetting failures that enabled entries of foreign nationals who threatened and harmed American national interests and public safety. Its purpose is to be a constant reminder to the American public and to government employees in a position to effect remedies that they are obliged to do so as soon as practicable. Additionally, the database points America’s homeland security establishment and its congressional overseers to previously unidentified fail points in the highly complex immigration security screening array so that they may more ably block future entries of foreign threat actors.
The pool of cases selected for inclusion is far from comprehensive and should not be construed as reflecting either problem-set totality or representative weight in any given area. It is by necessity, rather, a compilation selected almost solely on the basis of public information availability to reverse-engineer cases for analysis and from which to draw reasonable conclusions that security failure most likely occurred.
Only vetting opportunities on or after the year 2008 are included. The year 2008 was chosen as the starting point on the assumption that the first series of 9/11 visa vetting reforms would have fully vested by then and, in essence, remain in current use. The year 2008 also was chosen because certain significant new process improvements were implemented that year.
View About the National Security Vetting Failures Database to read more about database inclusions and exclusions in detail. For suggestions on additions to the database, please e-mail [email protected].
Year of First Vetting* | Name | National Security Crime Type | Summary | Immigration Status Type | Opportunities Missed | Time from US Entry to Discovery | Case Outcome | Read More | Link to edit Content |
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Vetting Year
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Name Kefelegn Alemu Worku (aka Habteab Berhe Temanu) |
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Summary Ethiopian human rights violator who used false identities to slip through several U.S. security vetting processes by posing as the father of a large family to which he was not related. |
Immigration Status Type Refugee status; Naturalized Citizenship |
Opportunities Missed 2 |
Time from US Entry to Discovery 7 years, 7 months |
Case Outcome Convicted at trial of identity fraud, lying on immigration documents. Sentenced to 22 years in federal prison |
Details
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Vetting Year
Time from US Entry to Discovery 7 years, 7 months National Security Crime Type Human rights violations, immigration fraud
Immigration Status Type Refugee status; Naturalized Citizenship Agency Responsible for Failure USCIS for Refugee classification and Naturalized Citizenship Opportunities Missed 2
Criminal Charges Unlawfully procuring citizenship or naturalization, aggravated identity theft, and fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents. Case Outcome Convicted at trial of identity fraud, lying on immigration documents. Sentenced to 22 years in federal prison
Ethiopian Citizen Kefelegn Alemu Worku entered the United States and settled in Colorado in November 2004 on a family refugee status claim established in Kenya. In November 2006, he applied for lawful permanent residence and received it in 2008, then applied for U.S. citizenship on November 22, 2009, which he received in under 13 weeks. But the false name the Ethiopian successfully submitted on all three applications – Habteab Berhe Temanu – covered up the fact that, eight years earlier, Ethiopia had publicly convicted him of genocide and sentenced him to death in absentia for torturing to death at least 101 and as many as 150 people during the 1977-80 “Red Terror” campaign, which was a ruthless political purge targeting those suspected of opposing the Marxist regime of the time. Worku committed these crimes while working as a prison guard at the notorious Higher 15 detention camp during the purge years. Later witness testimony had Worku conducting beatings and torture sessions using a cattle prod, rifle butts, whips and pipes, burning newspapers, and cigarettes, and shot dead both adults and children, court records show. One witness testified, for instance, that the “bloodthirsty monster”, after executing several prisoners, ordered other prisoners to drink the shed blood and lick the blood clean with their tongues. Ethiopia’s 2000 prosecution could have made his face and name publicly knowable and potentially discoverable in three separate security vettings, but so too could his initial identity fraud. U.S. government agencies missed three opportunities to discover Worku, two of them from 2008 onward. After fleeing Ethiopia, Worku lived in Kenya for 13 years. In about early 2004, he slotted himself into the identity of an Ethiopian father of five who was dying as he and his family in Kenya were about to be granted provisional refugee status and admittance to the United States. At the invitation of the ill man’s wife and older children, Worku then falsely claimed parenthood of the four children to ensure the application would go through. Worku has denied committing the atrocities but admitted that he slotted himself into the refugee family at the behest of the man who eventually did die the following year, in 2005. “The father of the kids that I brought here…[he} was sick and on his death bed. He entreated me to take his kids to the United States because he didn’t want his kids to miss that opportunity of coming to the United States,” Worku told a judge during a hearing in Denver. USCIS refugee affairs personnel on the ground potentially could have uncovered the fraud by checking with the Ethiopian government for wanted convicted war crimes fugitives, or merely by interviewing the family members individually at length for discrepancies and comparing their testimony against Worku’s personal history during his long years living in Kenya. He lived for years as a Denver-area parking attendant before a former victim in May 2011 recognized him by chance in a local café and tipped off federal ICE Homeland Security Investigations. After his Colorado discovery, an ICE investigator easily coaxed from all of the children that Woku was an “imposter”, court records show. On July 12, 2004, however, he entered the United States with the man’s wife and five children. A second chance for the U.S. government to discover this fraud came came and went in 2008, when the USCIS granted Worku lawful permanent residence. A third opportunity was lost after Worku applied for U.S. citizenship on November 22, 2009 and was granted it on March 2, 2010. USCIS granted these benefits despite the Ethiopian court’s 2000 conviction. In May 2011, Homeland Security Investigations received information from an informant who was a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Ethiopia. The informant was a former prisoner of Higher 15 who recognized Worku at the Cozy Cafe in Aurora, Colorado. On October 11, 2013, a federal jury convicted Worku for unlawfully procuring citizenship or naturalization, aggravated identity theft, and fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents. In May 2014, a federal judge sentenced him to 22 years in federal prison and revoked his U.S. citizenship. |
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Vetting Year
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Name Yousif Al-Mashhadani |
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Summary Iraqi refugee whose fingerprints were found at the scene of a terrorist group's Iraq bunker, where kidnapped U.S. citizen contractor Roy Hallums was taken and abused in 2005; omitted information about a brother who was arrested there in a raid and served two years in prison; also created a false story of persecution |
Immigration Status Type Refugee classification; Lawful Permanent Residence; Naturalized Citizenship |
Opportunities Missed 2 |
Time from US Entry to Discovery 5 years, 5 months* |
Case Outcome Convicted 06/2017 for illegally procuring citizenship |
Details
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Vetting Year
Time from US Entry to Discovery 5 years, 5 months* National Security Crime Type Terrorism-related, immigration fraud
Immigration Status Type Refugee classification; Lawful Permanent Residence; Naturalized Citizenship Agency Responsible for Failure USCIS for Refugee classification, Lawful Permanent Residence, and Naturalized Citizenship Opportunities Missed 2
Criminal Charges Attempt to procure naturalization contrary to law Case Outcome Convicted 06/2017 for illegally procuring citizenship
Iraqi citizen Yousif Al-Mashhadani, his brother Adil Hasan Al-Mashhadani, and his brother’s wife Enas Ibrahim entered the United States together as refugees in 2008. They claimed persecution stories involving victimhood at the hands of al-Qaeda in Iraq and settled in the Fairfax, Va., area. But US Citizenship and Immigration Services security screeners based in Amman, Jordan, granted their provisional refugee petitions despite discoverable intelligence information from a U.S. military raid in 2005 that recovered the fingerprint of Yousif inside a deplorable underground al-Qaeda torture bunker where kidnapped westerners were freed, including American contractor Roy Hallums, an FBI complaint affidavit much later revealed. While it’s unclear from public information why Yousif's fingerprints taken for his refugee application in Jordan three years later did not get matched to the one in U.S. possession, UCIS reviewers in Jordan also missed other family ties to the particularly murderous branch of al-Qaeda in Iraq and to the torture bunker. It was that Yousif and his other brother, Adil Hasan, hid the existence of another problematic brother, Majid Al Mashhadani, who was working directly with al-Qaeda and helped his terrorist group kidnap Hallums, who was kept for nearly a year blindfolded in a deplorable underground torture bunker, a later FBI investigation found. When U.S. military forces freed Hallums and other captives in the 2005 raid, they arrested Majid at the site. The Iraqi government imprisoned him for two years in Iraq. It was the U.S.-based FBI investigation that matched Yousif's fingerprints to the torture bunker and also uncovered the brotherly connection to Majid at the al-Qaeda bunker, not any routine security vetting associated with refugee or permanent immigration applications, including one in May 2013 for naturalized citizenship. The FBI found the fingerprint match in a separate investigation six months after the citizenship applications were filed, in November 2013. Court records do not elaborate on government thinking about the Yousif Al-Mashhadani fingerprint. But whether this refuge-granted brother was a terrorist operative, too, the investigation also found that all three refugees, including Adil’s wife, Enas Ibrahim, wittingly covered up their disqualifying relationships to the arrested kidnapper brother on at least two occasions. The first was during the 2007-2008 USCIS security screening for the provisional refugee applications in Iraq. A second opportunity passed when they secured their change-of-status applications in the United States for lawful permanent residence sometime later in 2008, and a third came and went in 2013 when the trio applied for naturalized citizenship. The misses seemed particularly egregious in light of other information apparently at the fingertips of adjudicators. In his first refugee application, for instance, Hasan filled out a “Worldwide Refugee Admissions Family Tree” report in which he omitted the al-Qaeda brother who'd been imprisoned after the American bunker raid. He also dropped his own “Al Mashhadani” family name as part of the ruse, keeping the alias "Adil Hasan" permanently after they settled in Virginia. But these ruses were discoverable because of yet a fourth brother who'd entered the United States earlier. The fourth brother identified in court records only as “A.M.”, a ranking Iraqi police official who would have been listed in the family tree document, also applied for refugee status in 2007. In August of that year, the Iraqi police official brother provided the American agency with all of the information about the terrorist brother and fully identified all of his other brothers to USCIS adjudicators. They were all in searchable databases. Information that all the brothers were biologically related (one therefore revealed as not listed in applications), nearly a year before Hasan’s application was granted, was therefore available through basic fact-finding and would have enabled adjudicators to link them all and discover the omissions. Secondly, a fingerprint check of Yousif Al-Mashhadani likely was never conducted as required under post-9/11 security screening reforms. Otherwise, a fingerprint database check should have discovered his fingerprint had been collected from inside the bunker, flagged the refugee applicant as a likely terrorist operative as well, and doomed the initial early applications of all three. Third, the FBI in 2016 found the persecution stories that both brothers and Enas Ibrahim initially provided to USCIS adjudicators were riddled with simple discrepancies that seemed easily discoverable. Under FBI questioning about these back-story discrepancies, all were forced to admit to making up the basic facts of their claims years after USCIS adjudicators apparently accepted them at face value. In short, federal criminal investigation following the basic footsteps of immigration security screening – rather than the other way around – turned up the derogatory information necessary to reveal the deceits. Yousif Al-Mashhadani was arrested in March 2017, after eight years of ineligible living inside the United States. He pleaded guilty to immigration fraud, was sentenced to time served and submitted to deportation proceedings. |
Key & Definitions
Types of cases
Espionage-Related: Cases begun under the auspices of federal law enforcement agencies as potential espionage involving the theft of sensitive U.S. government information, political influence operations by agents of foreign governments, theft of proprietary U.S. economic property for proliferation into foreign nations, illegal exports of U.S. technologies or restricted military-use commodities, and counter-intelligence.
Human-Rights Violation Related: Cases begun under the auspices of federal law enforcement agencies responsible for investigating global atrocities and perpetrators of human rights violations and war crimes. These would include individuals suspected of conducting murder, genocide, torture and other forms of serious human rights abuses who are living within the United States.
Terrorism Related: Cases begun under the auspices of the FBI as illegal violent acts of terrorism intending to murder, maim or destroy property to affect social and policy change; material support furthering acts of terrorism by U.S.-designated banned groups or individuals such as providing financial, material, or physical assistance or any other assistance that advances the illegal causes of those groups or individuals; the collection, use or plans to use of weapons of mass destruction in the commission of terrorism acts.
Visas
A-2: Derivative benefit given to spouse or child of an A-1 visa holder, which is a nonimmigrant visa for diplomat or government official physically present in the United States on assignment for their national government. (U.S. Department of State)
Asylum: A protection against deportation granted to beneficiaries determined to have suffered persecution or fear that they will suffer persecution on the basis of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion (USCIS).
B-1: Nonimmigrant temporary business visitor participating in business activities of a commercial or professional nature (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service)
B-2: Nonimmigrant spouse and children of a B-1 temporary business visitor who is participating in business activities of a commercial or professional nature. (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service)
EB-5: Immigrant visa leading to lawful permanent residence (green cards) for foreign national entrepreneurs who invest capital in U.S.-based businesses that will employ U.S. citizens and residents. Part of the “immigrant Investor Program.” (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service)
Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA): An online electronic application system allowing approved citizens of 40 select nations to enter the United States and remain without a visa for up to 90 days.
F-1: Nonimmigrant students enrolled full-time in an academic educational program, language-training program, or vocational program at an accredited college, university, seminary, conservatory, academic high school, elementary school, or other academic institution or language training program, culminating in a degree, diploma or certificate. (U.S. Department of State)
F-2: Nonimmigrant dependents of F-1 student visa holders who are enrolled in an academic education program. (U.S. Department of State)
H1-B: Nonimmigrant specialty occupation worker visas requiring higher education degree or equivalency. This temporary visa requires sponsoring employers to file petitions with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and potentially expires when employer sponsorship ends. The duration is three years, extendable to six years after which the visa holder may need to reapply. (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service)
J-1: Nonimmigrant temporary cultural or scholarly exchange visas with participating countries often involving teachers, physicians, researchers, short-term scholars, advanced-degree students, interns and government visitors. (U.S. Department of State
L-1: Nonimmigrant visas for temporary intracompany transferees who work in managerial positions or have specialized knowledge. Holders typically work in executive positions in a company located outside the United States but are opening offices inside the United States. (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service)
LPR (Lawful Permanent Residence): Most commonly known as “green-card” holders, noncitizen immigrants lawfully authorized to live permanently within the United States, own property, receive public benefits, work authorization, financial assistance at public colleges or join the Armed Forces. Three broad classes cover foreign nationals seeking family reunification, or relief on economic and humanitarian bases. May apply to become U.S. citizens five years after LPR grant. (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services)
MAVNI (Military Accessions Vital to National Interest): Immigrant program leading to citizenship for foreign nationals who enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces for up to four years and who hold useful specialized critical skills such as language, cultural backgrounds, medical and nursing training. (U.S. Department of Defense)
Naturalized Citizenship: Process by which U.S. citizenship is granted to a lawful permanent resident after meeting requirements established by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act. Prerequisites include at least five years as a lawful permanent resident, “good moral character,” English language proficiency, test of U.S. history and government principles, physically present in the U.S. for at least 30 months and able to take an Oath of Allegiance. (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service)
Refugee: Immigrant status granted to applicants located outside the United States who can demonstrate persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Those approved outside the United States are granted conditional Legal Permanent Residence. (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service
TPS (Temporary Protective Status): Nonimmigrant form of temporary residency and protection from removal bestowed by the Secretary of Homeland Security on foreign nationals who are already inside the United States whose home countries are regarded as unsafe for their returns. Eligible people without nationality, who last resided in the unsafe country, may also be granted TPS. Countries may be designated on grounds of ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster or “extraordinary and temporary conditions.” The protection is renewable but not legally regarded as permanent and provides for work authorization and other benefits reserved for permanent legal residents. (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service)