Immigration mattersAfter Times Square, questions raised about naturalization process

Published 10 May 2010

The suspect in the Times Square car bombing attempt is the latest in a series of U.S. citizens and green card holders to be implicated in a terror plot inside the United States, raising questions about the naturalization process that turns foreigners into Americans

The Times Square car bomb // Source: cbsnews.com

The suspect in the Times Square car bombing attempt is the latest in a series of U.S. citizens and green card holders to be implicated in a terror plot inside the United States, raising questions about the naturalization process that turns foreigners into Americans.

Several hurdles are in place for immigrants to attain U.S. citizenship and, in turn, its platinum-status passport. Pakistani-born suspect Faisal Shahzad passed through his security checks and became a U.S. citizen in April 2009. He first entered the United States on a student visa in the late 1990s, was granted a special work visa a few years later, and obtained a green card in 2006 after his wife, an apparent U.S. citizen, petitioned on his behalf.

FOXNews.com quotes an official with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to say that “it’s too early” to say whether any signs were missed in Shahzad’s naturalization process. The official acknowledged that any screening is just “a snapshot in time” and can not catch everything. “This is just one of those realities that we face,” the official said.

While the citizenship process is rigorous and takes about four months, there are areas it can miss, such as foreign travel.

The main citizenship form asks applicants for a five-year history of their travel outside the United States. It also asks a series of questions about the applicant’s criminal and personal background, including whether they have ever been a member of a terror group; ever advocated for the overthrow of any government by force; ever been a part of the Nazi government; ever been a prostitute; ever been “a habitual drunkard”; ever been a polygamist; ever committed a crime but not arrested; or ever lied to get into the United States.

FOXNews reports that these questions rely a lot on the individual’s honesty — terrorists applying for citizenship probably will not check the box declaring their outlaw affiliations. Similarly, if they have lied to get into the United States before, they are unlikely to admit it during the naturalization process.

A series of background checks, which apply to everyone, is meant to catch the liars. While travel records may come up in the process, the immigration official said the process does not look in depth at foreign or domestic travel. “It’s just not something that we need to know a lot about,” the official said.

The purpose of these reviews, rather, is to check for criminal background — arrest records,