"Guest Worker Amnesty Program" Would Not Protect America
By Michael Cutler
June 16, 2007

Here is an articlethat appears in today's edition of the Washington Times, reporting about the desire of members of Congress to spend about one billion dollars to help protect our nation against the specter of a terrorist attack. This is certainly a worthwhile endeavor, but either the politicians don't understand what is truly needed to protect us, or they have an agenda more about creating an illusion of security than actually providing the security to which we are entitled.

Much is made about the need to construct a fence along the border that separates the United States from Mexico. Incredibly, nearly 6 years after the worst terrorist attack ever carried out against our nation which involved the largest mass murder ever carried out against our people, our borders are not secure and the child-like quibbling and squabbling continues. The focus is on the border, the fence along the border and the hiring of an adequate number of Border Patrol agents. To be sure, these critical components of the immigration system have been neglected for decades, and I would certainly welcome the hiring of many new Border Patrol agents. However, our nation only has about 4,000 special agents at ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) at the present time to enforce the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States. Yet this critical deficiency is generally all but ignored by the politicians who claim that they want to secure our country against criminals and especially terrorists. It is important to note that none of the 19 terrorists who attacked our nation ran the Mexican border, but rather entered the United States through ports of entry. If the United States had an adequate number of Border Patrol agents to stand along the border and hold each others' hands, the terrorists who attacked our nation on September 11, 2001 would not have been impacted at all. The problem is that the United States is being inundated by aliens on a daily basis who manage to gain entry into the United States through a wide variety of methods. These vulnerabilities can be most effectively countered by having an adequate number of well-trained and well-equipped special agents operating within the interior of the United States, yet little has been offered to address this critical shortage of enforcement resources.

Those pushing the "Guest Worker Amnesty Program" who claim that our nation has attempted an "enforcement only program," and that this approach has not worked, fool no one! All that we have been provided with is the illusion of enforcement and it is the illusion that has failed to work! A Guest Worker Amnesty Program will not help to get our border under control, it will do just the opposite, providing a huge incentive to millions of aliens to run our borders with the hope (indeed, expectation) that they will be able to participate in this program!

Let us consider some of the many ways that illegal aliens and potentially criminals and terrorists can gain entry into our country:

1. Running the Mexican border
2. Running the Canadian border
3. Stowing away on a ship
4. Entering the United States through a port of entry under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program (This enables aliens from 27 countries to enter our country without first applying for and obtaining a nonimmigrant visa.)
5. Procuring a nonimmigrant tourist visa by filing a fraudulent application.
6. Entering the United States with a valid visa and then violating the terms of the visa such as overstaying the period of time for which he was admitted. (US VISIT is not currently able to track the departure of aliens who are admitted for a temporary period.)
7. Procuring a nonimmigrant student visa and then not attending the school for which the visa was issued.
8. Applying for and receiving an immigrant visa based on a fraud marriage. (If successful, this ploy provides the alien with a "green card" and puts him (her) on the path to United States citizenship.)
9. Applying for and receiving an immigrant visa based on a fraud job offer, as is the case with the marriage fraud, the alien would receive a "green card" and would place the alien on the path to United States citizenship.
10. Applying for political asylum by making a false claim of "credible fear." (Mir Aimal Kansi used this ploy. In January 1993, roughly one month before the first attack on the World Trade Center, he stood outside the headquarters of the CIA in Virginia and opened fire on CIA employees who were arriving for what they had thought would be a routine day at work. Two CIA officials died and three were wounded.)

I have stopped this list on the tenth item but there are other ways I have not listed. This is why I refer to immigration as a "system." If you were attempting to burglar proof you house I do not think you would be satisfied to simply reinforce your back door and declare your house to be "burglar proof!" You would secure all of your doors, all of your windows, all of your skylights and then have a locksmith install solid locks. You would retain strict control over the keys to those locks and then you would probably install a burglar alarm to automatically summon help if some really persistent burglar managed to break in. If you were really serious about the security of you house, you might also consider putting up a fence, installing effective lighting and trimming the trees and shrubs that are located close to the windows and doors of your house to deprive a burglar or criminal the opportunity to hide in the shrubs. There are still more measures you might consider, but you certainly get the idea. Security is best done in layers and must be thought of as a system.

Here we are, approaching the 6th anniversary of 9/11 and the debate rages in Washington about whether or not to build a fence on a segment of the Mexican border. It has been estimated that some 40% of the illegal aliens currently present in the United States did not run our nation's borders but rather entered the United States through a port of entry and then, in one way or another, violated the terms of their admission. Virtually no thought is being given about preventing aliens from gaming the bureaucracy to acquire immigration benefits through fraud even though a number of terrorists who have been identified as operating in our country in the decade leading up to the attacks of 9/11 used immigration benefit fraud to either enter the United States and/or embed themselves in the United States. I would certainly be curious to know how they secure their homes against the possibility of a burglar breaking in. I am willing to bet that they have secured as many potential entry points as possible. Yet they expect us to believe that they are really serious about our nation's security even as many of them continue to push for a Guest Worker Amnesty Program.

As you may know, I provided testimony to the 9/11 Commission. I did this providing testimony and answering questions posed to me by Janice Kephart, a counsel to the 9/11 Commission. She was additionally involved in the preparation of a report that was separate and apart from the official report issued by the 9/11 Commission Report on which she also worked. This additional report was known as the "9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel." You can read the entire report by clicking on this link. In September 2005 Janice issued a report for the Center for Immigration Studies that detailed her findings concerning the nexus between immigration and terrorism. As you may know, I am a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and have been affiliated with that Washington-based think tank for several years. You can find this report here.

I have copied the beginning of this report immediately below and I would urge you to notice how a number of terrorists managed to game the immigration system in order to either enter the United States or embed themselves in the United States to facilitate their nefarious objectives:

OH GOD, you who open all doors, please open all doors for me, open all venues for me, open all avenues for me.
-- Mohammed Atta

Executive Summary

This report covers the immigration histories of 94 terrorists who operated in the United States between the early 1990s and 2004, including six of the September 11th hijackers. Other than the hijackers, almost all of these individuals have been indicted or convicted for their crimes. The report builds on prior work done by 9/11 Commission and the Center for Immigration Studies, providing more information than has been previously been made public.

The findings show widespread terrorist violations of immigration laws. The report highlights the danger of our lax immigration system, not just in terms of who is allowed in, but also how terrorists, once in the country, used weaknesses in the system to remain here. The report makes clear that strict enforcement of immigration law -- at American consulates overseas, at ports of entry, and within the United States -- must be an integral part of our efforts to prevent future attacks on U.S. soil.

Among the findings:

Of the 94 foreign-born terrorists who operated in the United States, the study found that about two-thirds (59) committed immigration fraud prior to or in conjunction with taking part in terrorist activity.

Of the 59 terrorists who violated the law, many committed multiple immigration violations -- 79 instances in all.

In 47 instances, immigration benefits sought or acquired prior to 9/11 enabled the terrorists to stay in the United States after 9/11 and continue their terrorist activities. In at least two instances, terrorists were still able to acquire immigration benefits after 9/11.

Temporary visas were a common means of entering; 18 terrorists had student visas and another four had applications approved to study in the United States. At least 17 terrorists used a visitor visa -- either tourist (B2) or business (B1).

There were 11 instances of passport fraud and 10 instances of visa fraud; in total 34 individuals were charged with making false statements to an immigration official.

In at least 13 instances, terrorists overstayed their temporary visas.

In 17 instances, terrorists claimed to lack proper travel documents and applied for asylum, often at a port of entry.

Fraud was used not only to gain entry into the United States, but also to remain, or "embed," in the country.

Seven terrorists were indicted for acquiring or using various forms of fake identification, including driver's licenses, birth certificates, Social Security cards, and immigration arrival records.

Once in the United States, 16 of 23 terrorists became legal permanent residents, often by marrying an American. There were at least nine sham marriages.

In total, 20 of 21 foreign terrorists became naturalized U.S. citizens.

The material I have noted above makes it perfectly clear that our nation cannot possibly secure itself against terrorists and criminals if we attempt to provide the many millions of illegal and undocumented aliens with official identity documents in conjunction with the Guest Worker Amnesty Program being promoted by the politicians. There is absolutely no way that the beleaguered adjudicators at USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) would be able to verify the names, nationalities or dates of entry for these millions of illegal aliens.

I would remind you that last year, USCIS claimed that they lost more than 111,000 immigration alien files relating to aliens who applied for a wide variety of immigration benefits including 30,000 aliens who filed for naturalization. Incredibly, USCIS went ahead and adjudicated the applications of those 30,000 aliens who sought United States citizenship! When I drew a comparison in the beginning of this article about the ways that a responsible homeowner would try to secure his home against burglars, I said that he would have strong locks installed and then maintain strict control over the keys to those locks. United States citizenship represents the "Keys to the Kingdom." How well is our nation controlling those keys? I believe the answer is self-evident.

Finally, there is no way to prevent more illegal aliens from running our borders and then participating in this fatally flawed program, falsely claiming that they had been present in the United States for the requisite period of time. Our nation would ultimately provide terrorists and criminals with official identity documents in identities that these pernicious terrorists would create for themselves in order to hide their true identities and their true intentions. We would be facilitating the next terrorist attack against our nation and our citizens.

http://counterterrorismblog.org/2007/06 ... gram_w.php