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September 24, 2009
Exclusive: Lack of Integrity in Immigration Process Poses Serious Threat to American Security
Two recent reports, in the Washington Post and the New York Times, deal with the ongoing prosecution and investigation of three terrorism suspects and the efforts to identify additional coconspirators.
Both of these stories note how al Qaeda has sought to recruit resident aliens and citizens of the countries in which they launch attacks. More importantly, the Washington Post notes:
The transit bombings involved people with backpack bombs, and all plots had ringleaders or other key participants with legal residency in the United Kingdom and who had traveled to Pakistan.
The Washington Post report also makes the following points:
A U.S. counterterrorism official said, "We're obviously concerned about Westerners – and those with Western appearance – training with terrorists along the Afghan-Pakistan border," although the number of Europeans and Americans believed to have traveled there to do so "isn't thought to be high."
In an August 2008 speech, Ted Gistaro, the outgoing U.S. national intelligence officer for transnational threats, singled out al-Qaeda's training of operatives with North American or European residency documents, including passports, who could travel to the United States without a visa.
"Al-Qaeda is working to motivate more 'homegrown' extremists – radicals who are inspired, but not directed, by the group – to plan attacks inside the United States," Gistaro told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a nonprofit foreign policy think tank.
Here is a quote from the New York Times article to consider:
The charges stem from a long-running terrorism investigation that focused in some measure on Mr. Zazi, a Denver airport shuttle bus driver. Counterterrorism officials have said they were deeply concerned because of Mr. Zazi’s explosives training and because his legal resident status and eight years in the United States enabled him to operate while attracting little attention.
These articles bolster a position I have long held: When aliens are provided with resident alien status and, especially, United States citizenship, our nation is providing them with the veritable "keys to the kingdom." That is why this process must have integrity. However, as I have noted in many of my commentaries, there is virtually no integrity to the process by which those applications for residency and United States citizenship are processed.
This lack of integrity is the number one reason that I am adamantly opposed to providing millions of illegal aliens with residency and a pathway to United States citizenship under the auspices of a "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" program. This is also why I have stated at Congressional hearings that if our government enacts such fatally flawed legislation, al Qaeda should give those responsible for the legislation and its passage their version of the MVP award.
Understand that the Visa Waiver Program should have ended on September 12, 2001. Yet instead of terminating the program that represents a serious threat to national security, our government has expanded it to include the citizens of 35 countries – even as our expectations of freedom and privacy are slowly eroding in the name of "national security."
Many members of Congress, in the days and weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, demanded to know why no one had connected the dots and protected our country to prevent the massive loss of life on that horrific day more than eight years ago.
Well, I’m connecting the dots!
These concepts are not difficult to grasp for anyone who is truly concerned about national security and the lives of our citizens.
Any politician who, given these facts, would push for Comprehensive Immigration Reform is either a fool or disloyal to this nation and its citizens.
The only question that We the People need to ask our elected representatives who support Comprehensive Immigration Reform is, "Are you a fool, or disloyal, or both?"
Family Security Matters Contributing Editor Mike 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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