The Obama administration mishandled immigrant applications for U.S. citizenship ahead of the 2016 election, leaving tens of thousands of eligible applicants in limbo, The Washington Times reported.
The Department of Homeland Security blamed the problem on a spike in applications, but applications rose 14 percent compared with the 2012 election year – while the backlog surged 64 percent, the Washington Times reported.
According to the newspaper, the government began last year with about 390,000 pending applications, and was averaging four months of processing time.
It ended the year with more than 635,000 applications in its backlog and was taking far more than four months. In the final quarter of the year, it received nearly 240,000 applications and processed just 112,000, the Washington Times reported.
The problem was traced to a new DHS computer system installed last year that aimed to help the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services move to a digitized system, the Washington Times reported.
The $1 billion computer system known as ELIS – in honor of Ellis Island – was so flawed that naturalization interviews and even citizenship ceremonies had to be canceled in case the immigrant applying for citizenship was not actually approved, the outlet reported.
"It’s also a striking snafu for the Obama administration, which advocates hoped would be prepared to help hundreds of thousands of new citizens sign up in time to vote last year against Donald Trump's immigration plans," reporter Stephen Dinan wrote.
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