Gaping hole in immigration crackdown

Sunday, August 26, 2007
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By MIKE KELLY
RECORD COLUMNIST

IT WAS JUST an April Fool's Day traffic ticket on a highway far from New Jersey. But this was no joke.

The story behind a seemingly ordinary traffic stop on April 1, 2001, in Oklahoma is worth studying by New Jersey cops as they grapple with new orders to keep tabs on illegal immigrants who break the law.

The driver stopped that day in a rented Toyota Corolla for speeding and not wearing a seat belt was Nawaf al-Hamzi, a Saudi Arabian citizen in the U.S. with a questionable visa.

We would later learn, too late, that Hamzi was on a CIA terrorist watch list when he was stopped. But the Oklahoma cop who gave Hamzi a ticket had no idea – certainly no idea that Hamzi would go on to become one of the deadly jet hijackers five months later.

Hazmi's journey through America in 2000 and 2001 included several stops in northern New Jersey, stays at motels on Route 46 in South Hackensack among them. His companions in New Jersey included other hijackers with murky immigration status: Khalid al-Midhar, Hani Hanjour and the chief 9/11 hijacker, Mohamed Atta.


Midhar was on a CIA terrorist watch list. Hanjour and Atta had given false information to obtain their visas. And like Hamzi, Atta had been ticketed for speeding – and even skipped a court appearance.

Keystone comedy?

But in the months leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, these lunatic killers moved freely around America. Our government's numerous law enforcement agencies were not working together to catch any of them.

Those agencies are still not working as well as they could.

This week, we again were reminded of this problem right here in New Jersey – especially the difficulty in linking some of the most basic elements of police work to immigration.

In a much-heralded and much-needed announcement, New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram ordered all cops to check the immigration status of anyone arrested for a serious crime.

Milgram's order comes in the wake of the brutal, point-blank murders of three college students on a Newark school playground. One of the suspects in those murders is an illegal immigrant who had been released on bail after being arrested for aggravated assault and the serial rape of a 5-year-old girl. Two other suspects have questionable immigration status.

Under Milgram's new orders, New Jersey cops would have to tell federal authorities if they arrest an illegal immigrant for a major crime.

But Milgram's order has a huge hole. What about infractions that are not serious?

Like traffic stops.

In the days leading up to her announcement, Milgram and her advisers knew they had a major hole in their new directive to local cops. Yes, cops could ask suspects about immigration status, but only if they were involved in an indictable crime.

So suspected murderers and robbers and rapists would have their citizenship and immigration status examined. But shoplifters or vagrants or those who run stoplights and violate speeding laws would get a free pass.

This was no small decision. But those close to Milgram faced a common problem of many other state and local law enforcement officials: It's not their job to track down illegal immigrants. That's the domain of the federal government.

But the Newark murders demonstrate that such a divide in law enforcement is unworkable – indeed, unsafe.

Linked problems

Milgram tried to emphasize that her new directive was addressing a crime problem, not an immigration policy full of holes. But the Newark killings prove that you can't address one and ignore the other.

Most of America's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants are here merely to earn a few bucks and build a better life for themselves and their families. There's nothing wrong with that – indeed, that kind of worth ethic is admirable.

But the politically correct practice of essentially ignoring illegal immigrants sometimes allows criminals to flourish.

Six years ago, such a faulty policy provided cover for some of the 9/11 hijackers. To understand this danger, all you have to do is consider how close cops came to tripping up the hijackers' plans with what amounted to routine traffic stops.

Hanjour was ticketed as long ago as 1998 for driving with no insurance and an expired license plate in Arizona. But cops never asked Hanjour about his immigration status.

Atta was pulled over twice in the spring of 2001 for driving infractions. What might have happened if cops checked his immigration status?

But the most flagrant case involves Hamzi, onetime resident of that South Hackensack motel.

Our government knew this man was an al-Qaida operative. Yet, somehow he received a visa to come to America. The CIA knew Hamzi arrived. This week, we learned that up to 60 CIA staffers were aware that Hamzi was wandering around America illegally.

Yet not a single CIA staffer told the FBI – or even quietly phoned Congress or a newspaper.

Imagine if someone had blown a whistle?

Tantalizing what-ifs

But even if the CIA had been more alert, local cops still would have needed help checking his immigration status.

Which raises a difficult question: What if that traffic cop in Oklahoma had asked Hamzi for his visa when he stopped him for speeding? And what if a South Hackensack cop had asked? We know that a South Hackensack police officer checked the California license plates on Hamzi's car when he saw it parked at a Route 46 motel. Suppose that cop knocked on the motel door and asked to see Hamzi's visa?

Would that cop be accused of racial profiling?

Here, in New Jersey, cops still can't ask speeders and others involved in less serious infractions about their immigration status. Why not?

In 2001, a simple speeding ticket on a highway might have stopped the Sept. 11 plot.

Isn't that a good enough reason?

Mike Kelly is a Record columnist. He can be reached at kellym@northjersey.com.