Gore Mum on INS Vote Scandal
CNSNews.com
Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2000
Democrat presidential nominee Al Gore maintained his silence Monday on the explosive charges leveled in a new book, accusing him of pressuring the Immigration and Naturalization Service to speed the citizenship paperwork for tens of thousands of new immigrants so they could vote in the 1996 election.
The accusations are made in "Sellout," written by David Schippers, who served as the top investigative counsel for Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee during the Clinton impeachment trial and events surrounding the scandal.
Schippers alleges that many of the immigrants who were sped through the system by INS had violent criminal records even before they got to the United States and then committed violent crimes in America as well.
Schippers says his staff gathered the immigration evidence beginning in June 1998 as part of the Judiciary Committee's oversight investigation of the Justice Department. In particular, Schippers and his team of investigators were looking into the Clinton White House's use of the INS during the 1996 presidential campaign.
Schippers contends the Clinton-Gore administration pressured the INS into expediting its "Citizenship USA" program to grant citizenship to aliens the Clinton White House considered likely Democrat voters.
According to Schippers, he and his staff gathered much of that evidence even before they began investigating the Clinton impeachment case. However, Schippers believes if he and his staff had been given enough time to put together evidence and witnesses, "Citizenship USA" might have even figured in Clinton's impeachment trial.
"When we got into it, we realized that there were 60,000 people, 60,000 felony records that never made it into the (FBI immigrant) file, which means there were 60,000 people who were felons who had gotten citizenship," Schippers told CNSNews.com.
In his book, Schippers writes, "it was Gore who pressed the Immigration and Naturalization Service to grant citizenship to immigrants who might vote Democratic in the 1998 elections. In its rush, the INS didn't check the fingerprints of many immigrants to see if they had criminal backgrounds."
"What we did was get all the files, all the rap sheets. ... Then I had my staff sit down and go through those boxes. I said pick out 100 really bad crimes – rape, murder, home invasions, stuff like that, and just set them aside. In a box and a half, they had the hundred. We ignored DUI. We ignored anti-immigration charges," Schippers said.
Then those files, based solely on FBI identification numbers and without regard to names, addresses, race and nationality, were sent to the FBI for an update, according to Schippers.
"We said (to the FBI) update them. In other words, run the criminal history from the day they became citizens until August of 1998. The bureau was delighted. They were ecstatic that somebody was finally doing something about this. They ran those 100 and probably two or three days later, they called and said we've got them, but we can't give them to you directly, they have to go through the Justice Department," Schippers said.
After much delay, according to Schippers, the Justice Department turned those files over to Schippers and his staff.
"When we got those rap sheets back, we found 20 percent had committed violent felonies since becoming citizens. I'm not talking about burglary, and I'm not talking about theft. I'm talking rape, murder, home invasion, stuff like that," Schippers said.
According to Schippers, his investigation was hampered by the Justice Department's delaying tactics.
"It was like pulling teeth to get anything out of the Department of Justice. I mean they were stalling, moaning about privacy issues and stuff like that.
"The next step was going to be to give all 60,000 back to the bureau (FBI) and say update all of them. Then we were going to ask for names and addresses, and then we were going to have (House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry) Hyde contact the United States attorneys in the appropriate districts and inform them that you have the following individuals in your district who lied on their immigration application, which is a federal crime, and have committed crimes since becoming citizens. But because of the Starr matter (Clinton impeachment trial) we were pulled off of that," Schippers said.
After Clinton was acquitted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, Schippers' investigation of "Citizenship USA" and Gore's involvement was halted.
Schippers: Why Not Jail Janet Reno?
Last week, Attorney General Janet Reno decided for the third time against naming a special counsel to investigate Gore's 1996 campaign fund raising. Her inaction didn't surprise Schippers.
"As long as Janet Reno is the attorney general of the United States, they are not going to do anything that might hurt either Clinton, Gore or any of their cronies. We called her the goalie. They held us up and kept holding us up. But why somebody didn't drag her in and put her in jail for contempt of Congress is beyond me," Schippers said.
"This is not what I call integrity. Rather, this is just one more example of the Clinton-Gore administration's two working mottoes: 'the end justifies any means,' coupled with 'win at any cost.' "
Some insiders contend it was an influx of immigrant voters in California in 1996 that helped defeat longtime California Republican Rep. Bob Dornan, who lost in a squeaker to Democrat Loretta Sanchez. |
