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December 17, 2008
Exclusive: Is Obama’s Immigration Stance Change You Can Believe In? Don’t Bet On It
I am alarmed by the selection of the "experts" that the Obama transition team is bringing on board to address the immigration crisis confronting our nation.
One of his advisors is T. Alexander Aleinikoff, former executive associate commissioner for programs, was one of the key administrators in a disastrous program known as Citizenship USA that was implemented by the Clinton administration in 1996 – just three years after the terrorist attacks at the CIA headquarters in January 1993 and the bombing at the World Trade Center Complex in February of that year.
The attack at the CIA was carried out by Mir Amal Kansi, a citizen of Pakistan who had been granted political asylum. His rampage on that January morning – during which he fired an AK-47 into the vehicles of CIA employees reporting for work – left two of those officials, Frank Darling and Dr. Lansing Bennett, dead and three others seriously wounded.
It was determined that Kansi had apparently committed fraud in his application for political asylum.
The next month, the attack at the World Trade Center left six people dead and hundreds injured. An estimated one-half billion dollars in damage was inflicted on that complex.
On September 1, 2006 I testified before a field hearing convened by the House Judiciary Committee on the topic, "Is the Reid-Kennedy Bill a Repeat of the Failed Amnesty of 1986?" As a part of my prepared testimony, I discussed how terrorists were able to game the immigration bureaucracy in furtherance of their attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. The following is a portion of my testimony at that hearing :
A notable example of such a terrorist can be found in a review of the facts concerning Mahmud Abouhalima, a citizen of Egypt who entered the United States on a tourist visa, overstayed his authorized period of admission and then applied for amnesty under the agricultural worker provisions of IRCA.
He succeeded in obtaining resident alien status through this process. During a 5 year period he drove a cab and had his license suspended numerous times for violations of law and ultimately demonstrated his appreciation for our nation’s generosity by participating in the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 that left 6 people dead, hundreds of people injured and an estimated one half billion dollars in damage inflicted, on that iconic, ill-fated complex.
America had opened its doors to him so that he might participate in the “American Dream.” He turned that dream into our worst nightmare. The other terrorists who attacked our nation on subsequent attacks, including the attacks of September 11, 2001, similarly exploited our generosity, seeing in our nation’s kindness, weakness, gaming the immigration system to enter our country and then, hide in plain sight, among us."
I am gratified that Jerry Seper, the reporter of the Washington Times article linked above provided me with an opportunity to weigh in on this issue:
Michael W. Cutler, a retired 31-year INS senior criminal investigator and intelligence specialist, said that under CUSA, the Clinton administration had "thrown caution and common sense to the wind" just three years after terrorist attacks on the CIA and the World Trade Center. He said the program constituted "a level of malfeasance that left me utterly outraged.
"In the two attacks of 1993, many of the aliens involved had made use of immigration fraud to enter the United States and embed themselves in our country," Mr. Cutler said. "Had the administration learned the lessons of the attacks of 1993, in terms of how the terrorists had gamed the immigration system, the horrific attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, might well have been averted."
Ironically, on September 7, 2000 – almost exactly one year before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 – the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims conducted a hearing that was predicated on the OIG report that was noted in the Washington Times article.
Clearly, the way that our government has dealt with virtually every component of the immigration system has compromised our nation's security. Immigration is more than the outrageous situation to be found along the border that is supposed to separate the United States from Mexico. If a chain is as strong as its weakest link, where the immigration system is concerned, all that can be found are weak links and all but nonexistent links!
That Mr. Aleinikoff is being relied upon to provide guidance and leadership in view of his previous track record is, in a word, unacceptable.
Furthermore, I am greatly concerned that Mariano-Florentino "Tino" Cuellar, another law professor who has been assigned to assist the transition team, has been quoted as referring to the massive illegal immigration crisis as being a "humanitarian crisis that we've ignored" He was also identified as being an advocate for "Comprehensive Immigration Reform."
My regular readers know that I am adamantly opposed to "Comprehensive Immigration Reform." There are many compelling reasons why our nation must not create such a program. For one thing, it is important to consider that we are dealing with many millions of illegal aliens who do not have a shred of reliable documentation to attest to their true identities. Therefore, we not only cannot be certain of their true names, we cannot even be certain as to their nationalities. We therefore cannot be certain as to possible criminal histories or possible affiliation with criminal or terrorist organizations. We certainly have no idea as to their motivation for coming to the United State.
That an alien seeks a job is meaningless. I cannot think of a single terror suspect who was not identified by the job he (she) held as he awaited instructions to participate in a terrorist attack.
If we are uncertain as to the identities of these millions of illegal aliens, we certainly cannot determine when, where or how they entered the United States.
We often hear the pro-amnesty advocates say that when an alien has resided in our country for a number of years and has not been arrested for committing a crime that we should somehow trust that person.
What is faulty and naïve about that reasoning? There is no way of performing a cursory check of an illegal alien's name and fingerprint and determine if he has lied about his date of entry into the United States. There would be nothing to prevent an illegal alien from claiming that he entered our country five years ago, when, in reality, he entered the United States five months ago!
Additionally, a terrorist "sleeper agent" is a person who is willing to hide in plain sight for as many years as is necessary to embed himself in our country. An alien who can acquire United States citizenship is then able to potentially obtain a security clearance and secure a job in the military or even in the FBI or CIA, as Nada Nadim Prouty did. Terrorists and spies are patient. Time is on their side.
A couple of years ago, there was a terrible televised news report about a sky-diving instructor who was so excited about video taping his students doing their first free-fall jump that he grabbed his helmet-cam and leaped out of the airplane with them to record their jump. All was going along find and the footage he shot was spectacular until, about 30 seconds into the jump he came to the horrific realization that in his rush to get out of the airplane he had forgotten his parachute. You could see how he was contorting, trying to grab for a ring on a nonexistent harness.
He cursed and he screamed and ultimately, he hit the ground and was killed.
This was a true tragedy. His video tape survived, but he didn't
Once he stepped out into the void, thousands of feet above the ground, his fate was sealed! There was no going back.
What’s the connection to illegal immigration? Once an amnesty program is initiated, there would also be no going back.
If President-elect Obama wants to give us change we can believe in, he should start by securing our nation's borders and creating an immigration system that has real integrity. This requires calling upon leaders who understand what is required. That he is appointing "leaders" with the orientation and track record evidenced here is worrying, to say the least!
There is a wonderful Yiddish expression that translated says that "When a fish goes bad, it smells from the head!"
If past performance is a predictor of future performance, Mr. Aleinikoff and company have me greatly concerned. This is not the sort of leadership that will help me sleep at night.
The safety of our nation begins at its borders but it does not end there. It is therefore essential that not only must our borders be secured, but that our immigration bureaucracy honor those who abide by the laws and seeks to weed out those who would commit fraud and those who would assist them.
An amnesty program, a/k/a “Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” is one of the most dangerous programs our country could possibly implement. In my judgment, based on my years of experience, it could easily become a suicide pact given the reality of the way that such a program would be administered.
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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