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So, the Senate Committee kept challenging Ruth Meighan on what her role is and what it should have been as the chief immigration officer.

She eventually agreed that what came to be the norm, and what is the ideal are two different things, and because she didn’t have direct oversight over all processes at the Immigration Department, irregularities, and fraud managed to slip through. Here’s that portion of today’s hearing:

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"Who is responsible when in fact that person does not qualify, you or the officer below?"

Ruth Meighan - Former Director of Immigration
"I am the person that gives the approval for the visa."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"Who is responsible, who is accountable?"

Ruth Meighan
"I am the person that gives the approval so I believe I would be the person who is accountable for the issuing of visa."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"I'm specifically with respect to passports, who is responsible and who is accountable for the period when you were there?"

Ruth Meighan
"The director."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"You, even though you told us what you told us later, I want to be clear because you are saying it's possible that you are not at all involved in the process."

Ruth Meighan
"No I was not."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"But you are saying-"

Ruth Meighan
"And that is the system that is there and it is still there, that is the way the process is being done."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"You are taking responsibility?"

Ruth Meighan
"For the period I was there."

Hon. Aldo Salazar, Chairman - Senate Select Committee
"Are you aware of anything else which would lend itself to abuse in this fashion? Nationality or anything you would want to add."

Ruth Meighan
"After I browsed through the report and some of the findings that came up, even I as the director didn't expect that some of the things that happened did happen so I must state that clearly because the expectations were that when the file is presented the information that is presented is accurate, relevant, what we ask for. Obviously I don't know if changing the people or putting more control or putting a better system in place would make a difference. Obviously the department requires people within the department you can trust with the information they are presenting with because at the end of the day what you get is what you make your decision on."

At the next hearing the Senate intends to call those senior immigration offices who Meighan pointed fingers to. The Senate will call Senior Immigration Officers Edgar Cano, Gordon Wade, Ady Pacheco, and Sharon Neal. Cano, Wade, and Neal were lead officers at the different sections of the Department. Wade, Neal and Pacheco’s name were called in the Elvin Penner/ Citizen Kim passport scandals, and back in 2013 and 2014, and they made sure to stay away from the cameras as best they could. They will now have to answer some tough questions from the Senate IN OPEN HEARINGS.

Tune in tomorrow, when we’ll show a specific case that Senate Committee Chairman Aldo Salazar was particularly concerned about. It shows how if the Visa, Nationality and Passport sections were sharing information, the mass fraud committed on the Department could have been avoided.