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November 4, 2008
Exclusive: Not All Terrorists are Suicide Bombers
The current president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, should be commended for his courageous efforts to take on the extremely violent drug cartels and weed out the corruption to be found not only in his government, but throughout Mexico's general populace.
Yet courage alone does not solve the problem. According to an article in the New York Times,
"Among the greatest challenges in Mexico’s drug war is the fact that the traffickers fit no type. Their ranks include men and women, the young and the old."
This parallels something that I have said on numerous occasions: it is impossible to simply look at a person and know if that person is a criminal, a terrorist or law-abiding.
President George W. Bush often stated that he favored a Guest Worker Amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens who were present in our country in violation of law. Back when he was advocating his Guest Worker Amnesty Program on every possible occasion, he said that it made sense to permit those illegal aliens who were simply coming to work to do so, thereby enabling law enforcement to deal with the criminals and terrorists.
That statement belied a level of naïveté that is hard to imagine. As the article linked above points out, many of those arrested for their involvement in drug trafficking carried out all sorts of jobs in the furtherance of the pernicious goals of the drug cartels – including accountants who worked to conceal source and the movement of the huge proceeds from the drug trade and still others who carried out additional tasks in support of the trafficking activities.
The same situation also exists where terrorist organizations are concerned. Not all terrorists are hijackers or strap on bomb-laden vests. Many members of terrorist organizations play important supporting roles. They provide "safe houses." They engage in fund raising activities that may include committing crimes including drug trafficking, mail fraud, and insurance fraud – including arson that often results in the death of innocent people.
Someone once said that a spy is someone who would not attract the attention of a waiter or waitress in a "greasy spoon diner." It may well be that the waiter or waitress is the spy (or terrorist or member of a criminal organization).
Today, few politicians and all but a precious few journalists are willing to even raise the issue of immigration, it is vital that our nation secure its borders and create an immigration system that possesses meaningful integrity.
There can be no effective "war on terror" or any other critical criminal area if the immigration component of such efforts is not taken into account. How safe and secure can our nation be when there are an estimated 20 million illegal aliens living in our country?
Those who advocate providing millions of such illegal aliens with any sort of amnesty need to understand a basic fact:
The corrupt bureaucrats of the Mexican government would, no doubt, be more than willing to provide individuals who were citizens of Mexico and, perhaps, citizens of even other countries, with "Certificates of Good Conduct" for those who had enough money, that would enable criminals and terrorists to seek to enter the United States and then apply for documentation to establish false identities by bribing Mexican government officials.
As the drug cartels extend their reach into our country, it would also be in the best interests of the cartels to have their confederates enter the United States to carry out various missions in support of their drug trafficking efforts.
The drug cartels, as well as terrorist organizations, are constantly evolving – displaying real ingenuity in concealing the identities of their operatives and in manipulating government bureaucracies in Mexico and other countries as well as in the United States.
The huge sums of cash and the threat of extreme violence – an estimated 4,000 people have been reportedly killed by the cartels in Mexico since President Calderón was elected – have contributed to the increase in corruption of a nation that has accepted corruption as a way of life. The potential exists that this corruption and violence may make its way across the Rio Grande and do irreparable damage to the United States.
“We need a stronger society, a society that lives the principle of legality with conviction, that encourages, promotes, spreads and educates its children with values,” Mr. Calderón said. In other words, there has to be a line people will not cross, even for a suitcase full of cash.
Certainly no one could take issue with the goals that he sets forth, but they must also apply to our nation. You only get one opportunity for a first impression. For millions of people around the world, the first impression that they get about the United States comes when they seek to enter our country and encounter our nation's borders and interact with those government employees whose mission is to enforce and administer our nation's immigration laws.
Providing amnesty and "pathways to citizenship" for millions of illegal aliens present in our country, as advocated for by all too many of the politicians of the United States, flies in the face of the concept of legality called for by Calderón. Ironically, the Mexican government, especially under the leadership of Calderón's predecessor, Vicente Fox had openly advocated that citizens of Mexico show utter contempt for the borders and the laws of the United States.
The safety of our nation begins at its borders. It is therefore essential that our borders be secured and that our immigration bureaucracy honors those who abide by the laws and seek to weed out those who would commit fraud.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a recognized authority who addresses the implications of immigration on national security and criminal justice. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.
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