Border insecurity and illegal-migration renders “gang of eight” deal DOA

With federal investigators working furiously to uncover the backchannel intrigue of the legal immigrant Boston Marathon bombers, opponents of the comprehensive immigration reform bill see national security parallels to the lack of diligence in background investigations for legal immigration with the politically driven and completely myopic amnesty wave proposed for our Southern border.

First off, as the Heritage Foundation suggests, the new immigration bill would not have prevented the Boston Marathon bombing. “Thus far, the emotional and political arguments haven’t made much sense. A couple of key facts: The Tsarnaev brothers didn’t sneak across the border to get into the United States, nor were they here illegally. None of the ‘new security’ measures in the Senate immigration bill, such as biometric exit, would have helped us to better track the terrorists. Indeed, the Department of Homeland Security admits it knew when the older Tsarnaev brother left the country to travel to Chechnya and Dagestan. In other words, the existing system worked.”

Secondly, testimony given last week by Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Department of Homeland Security (DHS), revealed a number of glitches with the current dysfunctional immigration laws including a viable metric to monitor how secure the border is and keeping track of entries as well as departing visitors.

May 1, 2013
By: Kimberly Dvorak
examiner.com

One of her staunchest adversaries, Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu took issue with Napolitano’s repeated assertions that the U.S. borders are secure.

“Secretary Janet Napolitano almost daily proclaims that our U.S/Mexican border is already secure in an effort to pave the way to amnesty. One year ago, the Tucson sector alone had 122,000 illegals apprehended and now the Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol recently testified that this number is up more than 13 percent. Additionally, our Sheriff's Office recently led a multi-agency investigation which busted the largest drug smuggling operation in the history of Arizona, valued between $2-3 billion, arresting 76 individuals of the Sinaloa Mexican Drug Cartel and seized 108 of their firearms. In law enforcement, we call these clues; the border is NOT more secure than ever.”

The Sheriff also takes issue with Secretary Napolitano’s inability to implement a serious metric that measures border security. “This immigration reform plan gives Secretary Napolitano six months to come up with a border security plan. What has she been doing for the past four years?”

In light to the Boston Marathon terrorist attack by brothers who immigrated to this country less than 10 years ago, critics are questioning the validity of background checks. According to Retired Senior Special Agent (INS), contributor to the 9/11 Commission report, and National Security expert, Mike Cutler, the “gang of eight” or in his words the “eight gangsters” failed to address the terrorism related issues that accompany border security and comprehensive immigration reform.

“If Comprehensive Immigration Reform was to be enacted, there would be no way to verify the identities, backgrounds, entry data or intentions of the millions or, more likely, tens of millions of aliens who would be granted immediate employment authorization,” Cutler argues. “This would irreparably undermine national security. The present administration is providing undocumented aliens with identity documents without even conducting face-to-face interviews.”

Unfortunately, America’s flawed immigration admittance program has been around for decades and open arms have now given way to more hatred by would-be Muslim terrorists.

“The fraudulently amnestied aliens included 1993 World Trade Center bomber Mahmud Abouhalima who used his new status to travel freely to and from the Middle East to pick up terrorist training. Had immigration law been enforced, he would have never received travel documents and instead would have been removed from the country as an illegal alien visa-over stayer, potentially preventing the attack,” according to Center for Immigration Studies' recent Senate testimony. “Within six months of passage of the Schumer-Rubio bill, illegal aliens would be entitled to driver’s licenses, travel documents, Social Security accounts, and a significant number of state-level benefits.”

Irrespective of past experiences, the Senate is forging ahead with virtually the same 2007 immigration follies that were torpedoed by a boisterous electorate.

Nevertheless, senior Democrat and member of the gang of eight, Charles Schumer, of New York stated, “The American people have been clear. Americans overwhelmingly oppose illegal immigration and support legal immigration. They know that, throughout our history, immigrants have contributed to making this country more vibrant and economically dynamic.”

Schumer says his constituents, stakeholders, and other members of Congress, have made it clear that they want to fix the broken immigration system. “I truly believe that the fundamentals for immigration reform exist if we coalesce around seven key principles that the American people overwhelmingly support.” They include, operational control of our borders (no plan in place yet), a biometric-based employer verification system (E-Verify already in place), a requirement that all illegal immigrants must be currently in the country (responsible for current deluge of border crossers), illegal immigrant family reunification is a cornerstone value (Moms, dads, brothers, sisters, grandmas, grandpas, future children, neighbors kids etc...) and encourage those immigrants with entrepreneurial skills to create businesses that will employ American workers (Central and South American drug cartels).

Another group with strong objections to comprehensive immigration reform is Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Council leader Frank Morris who said, "The Senate Gang of Eight's immigration bill is not only impractical, but immoral. Increasing immigration levels through amnesty and new visa programs, particularly at the low-skilled level, will flood the labor market with millions more people, leading to higher unemployment, more poverty, and a lower standard of living for many in the black community."

Regardless of the political chatter, President Obama, for his part, has offered support for immigration reform, but has continued to deport some illegal aliens in the country. The President reiterated that his administration would continue deportations until immigration reform has been passed, even though immigration reform advocates beg Obama to stop deporting immigrants because they might be eligible for citizenship under the terms of the new overhaul legislation.

This must be news to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who are suing the Obama administration for not allowing agents to arrest illegals and allegedly ordered the same agents to release known criminal illegals. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor said, “The court finds that DHS does not have discretion to refuse to initiate removal proceedings [when the law requires it].”

Speaking of following the laws, opponents of the “gang of eight” legislation complain illegal immigrants will get something NO Americans can take advantage of, a reprieve from the IRS. How forgiving is Uncle Sam when citizens fail or refuse to pay taxes or make a mistake in their tax returns? Ask actor Wesley Snipes, he spent three years in the slammer for deceiving the taxman, plus he paid $5 million in fines and penalties.

On the flip side those who overstayed their visas or snuck across the border will avoid Snipes’ harsh treatment.

“Illegal aliens will be rewarded for breaking laws for which American citizens are routinely punished," said Mark Krikorian, Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies. "For example, an American citizen would face a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for using a fraudulent Social Security card, but under this bill the illegal alien would face a $1,000 penalty covering all his many offenses, a penalty which in many cases will be waived. Then, they would be issued a new Social Security number without any past bad credit or arrest records.”

Sheriff Babeu sees the writing on the wall and harbors numerous trepidations that DHS has the ability to “check out” and monitor 11-20 million illegal immigrants seeking America’s latest reprieve.

“We are asked to trust the very people who recently released 2,228 criminal illegals to our streets and continue to refuse to provide me their names, criminal history, their individual threat assessment, and location of their supervised release. We are asked to trust the very people who covered up Benghazi and gave over 2,000 high- powered weapons (AG Holder's Fast & Furious) to the Mexican Drug Cartel that we are fighting,” Sheriff Babeu asserts.