Wilson Says INS Action May Spur Vote Fraud

Gov. Pete Wilson charged Wednesday that California faces the possibility of “massive voter fraud” in the upcoming election because federal immigration authorities improperly granted citizenship to thousands of criminal immigrants.

Wilson and Republican leaders nationwide have recently seized on the controversy at the Immigration and Naturalization Service to criticize the Clinton administration in the final days before the election.

The allegations stem from federal admissions that some recently sworn-in citizens had criminal records that should have made them ineligible for naturalization.

On Wednesday, Wilson went beyond accusations of impropriety to complain that the INS problems have jeopardized the integrity of California’s election results.

“With the election less than two weeks away, Californians have a right to know how many of these individuals whom they have rushed to naturalize will be committing voter fraud when they cast ballots,” Wilson said at a Capitol news conference where he was joined by Republican Secretary of State Bill Jones.

The governor complained about “the impact of this seemingly massive voter fraud . . . on the November election.”

Wilson’s comments quickly triggered another exchange with INS officials, who charged in a letter to Wilson on Wednesday that his statements are “false and misleading.”

“Gov. Wilson is exaggerating far beyond what the truth is,” said INS spokesman Eric Andrus.

The dispute Wednesday focused on the scope of the problem.

INS officials say as few as 100 people might have been improperly naturalized during the last year. Wilson argued that about 100,000 criminal immigrants may have been improperly sworn in as U.S. citizens during the same period.

“When I speak of fraud, the allegation is that 100,000 people who have undergone this rush to naturalization have histories that would, in fact, bar them under law from being naturalized and from becoming citizens,” the governor said.

The governor released a letter written by the FBI on Monday that estimated that as many as 100,000 of the 1.2 million people sworn in as U.S. citizens over the past year have police records.

But Sean Walsh, a spokesman for the governor, said after the press conference that Wilson misstated his reference to the FBI estimate. He said the governor understood that an unknown portion of the 100,000 cases involved criminal violations that would not disqualify them from eligibility for citizenship.