Donald Trump’s regime has perverted a government unit that targets immigration-related fraud into a tool for pursuing its voter suppression obsession and bigoted worldview.
A new report from The Guardian highlights how the Trump administration is using the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate, which typically reviews asylum claims, to focus on screening white South Africans — who the administration, echoing white nationalists, has falsely claimed are facing a “genocide” — as well as “unlawful” voters.
Much like illiberal leaders such as Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu have done in the past, Trump and his allies have spread baseless allegations about some sort of left-wing conspiracy involving immigrants and minority communities unlawfully rigging the political system and costing Republicans elections.
The Guardian reported on internal communications, which MS NOW has not independently reviewed, announcing the change in priority for officers at FDNS, which is part of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the Department of Homeland Security.
Per the outlet:
“All FDNS [immigration officers] have been reassigned full-time to one of two high-priority USCIS initiatives (South African refugee screening and unlawful voter screening),” an internal message, sent on Monday, said. “Because of this, we will not have the ability to assign [immigration officers] to the training portfolio for the near future.”
Contacted for comment, USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said the directorate “works on different vetting portfolios to combat fraud, maintain the integrity of the immigration system, and detect national security and public safety threats.”
It would seem the Trump administration is still trying to roll out the red carpet for white South Africans — while rejecting refugee admissions for virtually everyone else — and target supposedly unlawful voters as it seeks ways to meddle in the upcoming midterms. It’s certainly noteworthy that this directive comes amid reporting about DHS failing to provide evidence for its claims about noncitizen voters unlawfully casting ballots.
The Guardian says the new directive could lead to a slowdown of asylum processing:
The reassignment marks a significant diversion of FDNS personnel. The message addresses only the agency’s ability to provide officers for asylum officer training; it does not say whether routine FDNS screening of pending asylum applications has also slowed or stopped.
A disruption to training would limit specialized instruction for asylum officers, and a broader slowdown in casework screening would have more direct consequences for pending applications. The Guardian has not independently confirmed whether routine asylum screening has been affected.
The fact that this unit is essentially being fashioned into a tool of white supremacy — as it assists a white-centric immigration agenda and helps fuel bigoted lies about voter fraud — shouldn’t come as a surprise given the agency’s leader. As I’ve written about previously, the head of USCIS is Joseph Edlow, who has publicly espoused central tenets of the racist and antisemitic “replacement theory” that has been popularized by white supremacists and mass murderers.
Now we’re seeing what it looks like for those bigoted views to be systematized by the federal government.
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