The Homeland Security agency that oversees lawful immigration to the United States allows asylum, adjudication, and immigration officers whose national security eligibility was denied or revoked to work in sensitive positions that require the clearance, a troubling federal audit reveals. This is significant because the agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), administers essential programs that permit foreign nationals to visit, work, study, live and seek refuge in the country. With around 24,000 employees in hundreds of offices worldwide, USCIS regularly oversees information that requires elevated levels of security clearance because the work directly affects national security. Like other critical agencies that operate under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), USCIS is supposed to ensure that employees are properly vetted and meet the government’s standards to do the job.
By failing to do so the agency creates a “significant risk” that the officers “could make immigration decisions that gravely damage national security or obtain access to highly sensitive information,” according to the DHS Inspector General. The watchdog reveals that the high-risk USCIS staffers served as asylum, adjudication, and immigration officers, calling those jobs “Special-Sensitive and Critical-Sensitive positions directly responsible for making immigration decisions that have national security implications.” In one example 10 employees remained active in national security positions for an average of about seven years after they were found ineligible to hold a sensitive position or required security clearance. “The most egregious case involved an employee who remained in a national security position for more than 12 years after being denied a security clearance,” the report states. Over a dozen other employees working in national security positions performing sensitive duties without proper clearance on file worked for USCIS for an average of two years.
Investigators “uncovered significant derogatory information” about at least 13 USCIS officers handling sensitive national security information that the agency sat on for at least a year while allowing them to keep working in high-level positions. “These employees were left in place despite USCIS possessing derogatory information such as marriage fraud, tax evasion, potential money laundering, and ongoing contact with individuals illegally residing in the United States,” the DHS IG writes. The watchdog offers examples, but they are redacted as are other portions of the document, presumably for national security reasons. Enough information is available, however, to convey the gravity of the situation. For example, 14 asylum, adjudication and immigration officers who were denied security eligibility continued working in national security positions for extended periods, in one case more than a dozen years. Another 13 USCIS staffers remained working despite background investigations yielding derogatory information that disqualifies security clearance and 27 were granted clearance even though they may have been unsuitable or insufficient information existed to determine suitability.
“Federal employees must maintain a high standard of integrity,” the DHS IG reminds. “Employees found to have criminal records, financial instability, or anti-government ideologies may be more susceptible to coercion, blackmail, or foreign influence. Allowing employees whom USCIS deemed a security risk to remain in positions where they may access highly sensitive information undermines USCIS’ mission.” The agency must promptly take actions to mitigate the risks, the watchdog writes. The damaging report comes on the heels of another major scandal for USCIS involving its failure to properly screen an alarming 40% of Afghans admitted under a Biden administration program known as Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) to help “vulnerable Afghans” resettle in the U.S. after the chaotic 2021 withdraw of American troops. Among them was a terrorist who ambushed and shot National Guardsmen near the White House in late November 2025, killing a 20-year-old specialist, seriously injuring a 24-year-old sergeant and wounding two others. On the day of the attack, DHS confirmed the “terrorist is one of thousands of unvetted Afghan nationals let into the country” under Biden. USCIS was the agency responsible for screening the Afghans.
