Washington, September 20 (RHC)-- The U.S. government has mistakenly granted citizenship to at least 858 immigrants from countries "of concern" to national security or with high rates of immigration fraud who had pending deportation orders, according to an internal Homeland Security audit released Monday. 
 
The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general found that the immigrants used different names or birthdates to apply for citizenship with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and such discrepancies weren’t caught because their fingerprints were missing from government databases. 
 
U.S. Homeland Security said in an e-mailed statement that an initial review of these cases suggest that some of the individuals may have ultimately qualified for citizenship, and that the lack of digital fingerprint records does not necessarily mean they committed fraud. 
 
Mistakenly awarding U.S. citizenship to someone ordered deported can have serious consequences because U.S. citizens can typically apply for and receive security clearances or take security-sensitive jobs.