Thread: Illegal Immigrants Didn’t Pose Security Risk

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Illegal Immigrants Didn’t Pose Security Risk, MWAA Claims
Dan Telvock

Jun 23, 2006 -- A spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Authority said the federal government’s arrest of a group of 55 illegal immigrants last week at Dulles Airport does not highlight any security flaw at the facility.
MWAA is responsible for security on airport grounds, where the 55 allegedly illegal immigrants were working for companies hired to expand the growing airport that serviced 27 million people last year. The arrests of the workers are part of the federal government’s ongoing effort to curb the influx of illegal immigrants in the United States.

“We don’t believe that these individuals posed a security risk because when they report to work they enter the airfield on a bus that takes them from the airport property boundary to the site,” said MWAA spokesman Rob Yingling, who added that the construction sites are enclosed and secure.

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA-10) didn’t downplay the “shocking” incident and said his office will be getting involved to ask additional questions of the federal law enforcement agencies involved in the case. He said he was glad arrests were made.

MWAA and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency would not disclose the name of the two construction companies that hired the workers now detained. It is illegal to hire workers who are not legal residents or who do not have immigration documentation that gives them permission to work in America. Yingling said he is not aware that any contracts have been suspended as a result of this incident.

“It is incumbent upon the employer to determine the employees’ legal status in this country,” Yingling said. “Whatever company or companies that are involved, they are going to have some questions to answer.”

Wolf said illegal immigrants should not be working at construction sites for critical facilities, such as airports.

“I think it should send a message that all of the construction firms have to be very, very careful,” Wolf said. “It is shocking and it should not happen and I will be very, very aggressive making sure this does not happen at other sites, too.”

Ernestine Fobbs, spokeswoman for ICE, said no additional details about the case would be released this week.

The Washington Post reported Monday that federal statistics show that between 1999 and 2003, the number of employers prosecuted for unlawfully hiring immigrants dropped from 182 in 1999 to four in 2003. Fines also have dropped considerably.

The arrests took place early Wednesday, June 14, as the workers were being bused to the construction site at the airport. A security checkpoint was set up and it’s where ICE agents intercepted the group. Agents asked the workers for their immigration documents and those who could not supply them were detained and transported to an ICE office in Alexandria. Fobbs said some members of that group have already been flown to El Paso, TX, for removal proceedings. ICE said the arrested immigrants are from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Bolivia.

ICE agents said that one of the illegal workers had an airport security badge that allowed him to access the airport tarmac without an escort. These details concerned Wolf, who said that this incident alone poses a security risk at the airport.

“That is double shocking then,” Wolf said about an illegal immigrant possessing a security badge. “We are going to check that out.”

Wolf mentioned that the plane that was crashed into the Pentagon on 9-11—American Airlines Flight 77—originated at Dulles International Airport, when stressing how airport security must be at its highest level.

"Unauthorized workers employed at sensitive sites and critical infrastructure facilities—such as airports, seaports, nuclear plants, chemical plants, financial institutions, water and food processing plants and defense facilities—pose serious homeland security threats,” said ICE Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers in a prepared statement. “Not only are the identities of these individuals in question, but these aliens are also vulnerable to exploitation by terrorists and other criminals given their illegal status in this country."

Yingling said all rules and regulations were followed during issuance of the employee’s badge.

“We have heard nothing so far to imply that we violated any laws or procedures with the issuance of that badge,” he said. “We are cooperating with ICE and its investigation and if it turns out there is some procedure that is not working we will address that.”

Yingling explained that before workers at the airport can get a security badge, they must be fingerprinted, pass a background check and provide two forms of identification, all of which the FBI reviews and confirms. Yingling said the entire list of people who have security badges is provided to Transportation Security Administration, the federal agency that also is responsible for security in airports. Yingling said he did not know how an illegal immigrant could pass all the testing and get a security badge.

“That might be a question for the FBI or the TSA,” he said. “Again, because we don’t know who the individual is and I am sure ICE is asking for those types of records, I don’t know if this person provided a state driver’s license, a green card, or whatever.

“In this particular incident we are talking about one person to whom we issued an ID badge. We’d like to know more, if issuing that one badge violated, in any way, the procedures we have in place. But right now we haven’t heard that has happened.”

TSA spokesman Darrin Kayser said Monday that a background check had been performed on the individual in question and a part of that investigation for that person did include a legal status review.

“When he went through his background check, his legal status check came out OK,” Kayser said. “The background check that was conducted was conducted appropriately.”

Wolf doubted that the illegal immigrant’s fingerprints were sent to the FBI and he said his office would be asking more questions of the federal agencies involved in the investigation.

“That would sound hard to believe that they sent fingerprints to the FBI,” Wolf said.

The investigation of the illegal immigrants started several weeks ago, ICE stated, and included the Transportation Security Agency, Border Protection, and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

MWAA spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said she could not release any details about the investigation or the arrests.

A similar round up was conducted earlier this week at Indian Head, MD, at the Naval Surface Warfare Center. Fourteen unauthorized workers were detained and face removal proceedings.

“There is no indication that any of the individuals arrested in the operations at Dulles International Airport or the Naval Surface Warfare Center were involved in any terrorist activity,” ICE stated in a press release. “The arrests at these two locations were the latest in a string of operations and investigations by ICE designed to remove illegal workers from sensitive sites and critical infrastructure locations around the country.”

Any illegal alien in this country poses a security risk.

One of the things that has always puzzled me is the fact the President made federal employees of all airport screeners, immediately after 9/11. It was well known and talked about at the time, that a large number of them were illegal aliens.

Illegal is illegal. It's as simple as that! What is wrong with these people???

To allow illegal aliens access to a secure area when they were most likely using fraudulent documentation then downplaying the event by saying they posed no threat to facilities is beyond ludicrous. Using fraudulent documentation is a criminal offense so they shouldnt have been there in the first place. An illegal alien issued a secure area badge because he supposedly was legal with the possibility of no fingerprint checks done? This is even more absurd. I am retired milltary and had to undergo a 2 year exhaustive background check and investigation for a top level security clearance so I can receive a badge for secure area entry. When I enter a military intstallation I have to have valid DOD stickers on my car and a valid militarv ID. I have seen illegal aliens on DOD installations not far from military aircraft and armaments. Furthermore the fact that an illegal alien can get a secure area access badge with practically no questions asked is beyond insane. I love the report about illegal aliens on a DOD contractor installation supporting Tomahawk Missiles who had no or fake documentation which poses a danger to military personnel and to resources used to protect our national security. This proves this administration practices selective national security holding the safety and welfare of American's hostage to political gamesmanship.