I’m all for clearing backlogs. I’m not for this as the way to do it.

In a major policy shift aimed at reducing a ballooning immigration backlog, the Homeland Security Department is preparing to grant permanent residency to tens of thousands of applicants before the FBI completes a required background check.

Those eligible are immigrants whose fingerprints have cleared the FBI database of criminal convictions and arrests, but whose names have not yet cleared the FBI’s criminal or intelligence files after six months of waiting.

The immigrants who are granted permanent status, more commonly known as getting their green cards, will be expected eventually to clear the FBI’s name check. If they don’t, their legal status will be revoked and they’ll be deported.

Yeah, if the Department of Homeland Security can even find them. And that’s supposing that once found, DHS officials won’t just expedite them through to rack up bonus points. DHSniks like Michael Chertoff have some nerve, on the one hand smearing border security advocates as nascent immigrant-executers while DHS allows who knows how many potential problem resident aliens to skip ahead in the process.