Wilson Alleges That INS Gave Citizenship to Criminals

Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday added his voice to allegations that criminals have been illegally granted U.S. citizenship as a result of a Clinton White House effort to speed up the naturalization process before election day.

“Dangerous criminal aliens should be deported. Instead, it appears the Clinton administration is welcoming them with open arms by granting them citizenship, giving them safe haven in the United States and making them eligible for taxpayer-paid benefits reserved for citizens of this nation,” the Republican governor said at a news conference at his downtown Los Angeles office.

Richard Rogers, the Los Angeles district director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, denied Wilson’s charge that procedures were recklessly hastened to increase pro-Clinton voters in next month’s election.

Rogers estimated that only about 120 of the 216,000 naturalizations in the past year in his seven-county district may have been wrongly approved and that all those cases are being reviewed for possible withdrawal of citizenship.

Wilson slurred many law-abiding new citizens by suggesting that perhaps thousands of criminals were naturalized, Rogers said.

The governor urged U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to provide congressional investigators and the FBI with files that could show how many criminals were granted citizenship.