Immigration enforcement proponents are concerned about an effort by the Department of Homeland Security to obtain citizenship for as many immigrants as possible before the November election.
The Washington Times reports that an internal memo reveals DHS is granting as many citizenship applications as it can by the end of September in order to allow those new citizens time to register to vote in this year's presidential election.
Republican Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, whose committees oversee the DHS, are demanding answers from Secretary Jeh Johnson. "Your department seems intent on approving as many naturalization cases as quickly as possible at a time when it should instead be putting on the brakes and reviewing past adjudications,” the two lawmakers said in a letter to Johnson.
Ira Mehlman with the Federation of American Immigration Reform says DHS officials aren't doing their due diligence. "They are cutting all kinds of corners and they're trying to rush the process to get as many people naturalized so they can vote in this year's election," he tells OneNewsNow.
Grassley and Johnson provided as an example the discovery last week that more than 850 illegal immigrants from "countries of concern" – who were slated for deportation – were mistakenly granted citizenship instead.
"Clearly this is an effort to politicize citizenship because they believe it's going to work to their political advantage," Mehlman adds.
William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, believes illegal immigrants are also being registered in states where there are little or no safeguards to prevent voter fraud.
"I believe that the chances are there that Donald Trump could be in a landslide win situation with American voters, yet still have the election stolen from him by the legal and illegal immigrant voter registration drives currently in progress," states Gheen.
Two Hispanic immigrants who have been in the U.S. legally for many years – and eligible for citizenship for 15 years – told the Chicago Tribune in April that they decided to get their citizenship this year so they would be able to vote against Donald Trump.
Voter fraud?
Gheen's group is based in North Carolina – a swing state where razor-thin races could invite voter fraud. And it doesn't help matters that an activist judge has struck down the state's voter ID law put in place to counter that possibility.
"So now, once again illegal aliens are free and clear to register to vote, and to vote, in North Carolina and other swing states as they already have been doing in many cycles in states like California and Nevada," Gheen shares.
In response, ALIPAC has launched a voter registration drive to counter potential voter fraud across the country.
"...We began circulating the voter registration deadlines, online voter registration access, and the early voting dates to our network of activists across the country," he explains. "And we plan to continue to push voter registration, asking Americans to register people who they know oppose illegal immigration to try to counteract the illegal alien vote."
Gheen admits he's concerned that the votes of illegal immigrants could potentially tip the scales in favor of Hillary Clinton in swing states like North Carolina.
Editor's note: "Voter fraud?" portion of story added after original posting.