This week, Federal agents arrested 29 people, mostly Pakistanis, who allegedly posed as Muslim religious workers to obtain special visas to enter the United States .  The Associated Press reports that the arrests were part of a probe into several organizations that pose as legitimate religious groups to obtain visa applications under the Religious Worker Program.   

This program allows religious organizations in the US to sponsor visas, which allow a legal visitor to work only in a religion-related job for a limited time.  The immigrants arrested worked at non-religious jobs.  According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the arrestees were working non-religious jobs such as gas-station attendants, truck drivers, and factory workers.  

"If these allegations are true, it is sad to see people misuse the religious-worker visa program in an attempt to gain fraudulent immigration status in the United States ," said Arsalan Iftikhar, national legal director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.  "In a time where increased dialogue is needed between people of all faiths, it is imperative that initiatives like the religious-worker visa program continue to bring credible religious workers of all faiths to America ."  

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Homeland Security Department inspector general General Richard L. Skinner warned that the fence planned for construction between the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders will cost far more than the $2 billion that industry analysts initially estimated.  The figure may possibly balloon to almost $30 billion.  Inspector General Skinner says the ambitious plan to deploy high-tech sensors and cameras along 6,000 miles of the borders run the risk of runaway costs because of poorly defined objectives.  

According to the Washington Post, this estimate comes at a time when members of a House homeland security oversight panel stressed in a recent session how the government’s poor track record on border enforcement undermined their confidence.  A smaller attempt in the 1990’s to deploy remote-sensing technology on the border "started as a $2 million program and turned into a quarter-billion-dollar disaster," said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), becoming a poster child of government waste and mismanagement."   

Critics have posited that a Republican-controlled Congress and President Bush approved legislation authorizing the construction of a 700-mile fence without much foresight for the funding of the work entailed.  "It seems like déjà vu all over again," said Rep. Kendrick B. Meek (D-Fla).