Thread: Terror plot puts focus on student visas

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-172511.html
Terror Plot Exposes Lax Immigration Enforcement

The Case of Hosam Maher Husein Smadi: DéjÃ* Vu All Over Again

By Jessica Vaughan, September 28, 2009

Overshadowed in the extensive national coverage of the Najibullah Zazi terror case is the case of Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year old Jordanian man arrested on Thursday, September 24, in Dallas. Smadi was taken into custody by FBI agents shortly after throwing the switch on what he believed was a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) in an SUV he had parked in the basement of a 60-story Dallas office tower, in an attempt to kill thousands of people timed to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Like several other terrorists before him, Smadi apparently was a student visa overstay.

According to news reports, Smadi was issued a student visa to study at a high school in Santa Clara, Calif. Actually, he was living in Italy, Texas, a small town south of Dallas, and working at a Shell station there. Friends and neighbors knew him as "Sam," saying he was "popular, friendly, and loyal, and never missed a party." He came to the attention of FBI agents who were monitoring an on-line chat room for violent jihadists. That Smadi was caught is a testament to the value and effectiveness of federal counter-terrorism programs. That he was here at all raises old questions about loosely-monitored student and exchange visa programs that serve little diplomatic or academic purpose, but are obviously still providing access for terrorist-wannabes.

The latest report from DHS' Student and Exchange Visit Program (SEVP) says that as of January 2009, there were nearly 10,000 schools in the United States approved to host foreign students and exchange visitors. These range from the top user, the City University of New York (11,600 students) to scores of beauty schools, English language programs, massage therapy establishments, and aviation training institutes, to cite some on just on the first page of the list. DHS lacks the staff and resources to do more than a cursory examination of the schools every few years.

As of January, there were just over one million active foreign students, exchange visitors, and their dependents in the United States. About 20,000 are enrolled in high school level programs.

When a foreign student does not show up for classes in the program for which he was admitted, the institution is supposed to notify DHS. There is an office within ICE, the Compliance Enforcement Unit, that is tasked with evaluating the information and forwarding leads and records from SEVIS and two other monitoring programs (US-VISIT and NSEERS) to ICE field offices for investigation and possible enforcement. According to ICE agents I spoke to just recently about this effort, very few of the leads they receive are specific or current enough to act on. Since 2003, the unit has received more than 550,000 leads, ultimately resulting in 3,190 arrests.

Meanwhile, the State Department continues to crank out the student visas. In 2008, consular officers issued 767,266 visas to students and exchange visitors, up from 525,098 in 2004, an increase of 46 percent. This increase is partly the result of intense lobbying by the higher education industry to reverse stricter policies put in place after 9/11 (one of the 9/11 hijackers entered on a student visa, as have 19 other terrorists before him. See here for details). But many State Department managers support a more relaxed approach to foreign students, and both the Bush administration and congressional Democrats were keen on expanding access to foreign students, especially in community college and other less selective programs.

Temporary visitor visa issuances in Jordan are not what they were prior to the peak in 2001, when more than 25,000 were issued, but have been climbing back steadily, from 13,174 in 2002 to 17,295 in 2008. Most of these are regular temporary visas for business or pleasure, but just over 2,000 were to students and exchange visitors. In addition, the State Department issued more than 3,000 green cards in Jordan in 2008, nearly all based on family relationships, plus 30 based on employment and 24 lottery winners.

The Smadi case and other recent cases of disrupted terrorist plots illustrate several key points:

1. Terrorists continue to exploit our loosely monitored visa programs, so adjudicators must continue to be alert to this risk. Why would a consular officer issue a visa to a teenage Jordanian male to study English in an obscure high school in California? Smadi would seem to be a classic example of someone who should be refused on ordinary grounds, apart from any security concerns. According to one report, he already had a criminal record.

2. The monitoring programs implemented slowly after 9/11, such as SEVIS, US-VISIT, and NSEERS, need to be maintained and improved upon. Did the high school report Smadi's absense (sic) to DHS? If so, what did they do about it?

3. Programs that deter employment, such as E-Verify, need to be made universal. If Smadi had not been able to get a job, he might not have been able to stay here to hatch his plot.

http://www.cis.org/vaughan/smadi

From the Center for Immigration Studies

Overstaying Their Welcome

By Mark Krikorian, September 28, 2009

I'm all for border fencing and the like; it's an essential tool of national sovereignty.

But for too many politicians, and even ordinary folks, support for border security is a cop out, a substitute for thinking about the overall immigration problem, only part of which has anything to do with our border with Mexico.

One vital issue that is neglected because of this tunnel-vision on border fences is visa overstays. The Dallas jihadist shows how important this is; I suspected he was an overstayer, and the Dallas Morning News confirmed:

The father said that his sons Hosam and Hussein came to the United States in 2007 on student visas. Authorities said, however, Hosam Smadi was not currently enrolled in school.

And the intention to study here was likely phony from the beginning:

The brothers lived in a Santa Clara, Calif., apartment with an older relative until February 2008, when a small fire forced them to move. Smadi told his apartment manager, Joe Redzovic, that the family had come to America for a better life.

And when local cops checked on the Jordanian jihadist after an arrest earlier this month for not having a driver's license or insurance, they had no idea was an illegal alien:

Ellis County sheriff's spokesman Dennis Brearley said Friday that his department had no reason to hold Smadi. They didn't know he was in the country illegally because nothing showed up in his background. Smadi paid a $550 fine and was released.

So, are we getting serious about completing US-VISIT, the check-in/check-out system for foreign visitors? Of course not. This from a reader who works for a firm that worked on US-VISIT:

"The outgoing part of USVISIT (Phase 2) – that would be the part that matched passports as people left, to make sure a) there was a record of them entering the US legally; b) the records showed that they had indeed left on or before the date stated on their entry papers; and c) that officials could compile lists of those who had NOT left on time so that they could be tracked – has never been funded. We go round and round with the consulting firm each year, wondering if the Congress would fund the outgoing part of USVISIT – to no avail. They’ve finally dropped technical support for Phase 1, as they see no hope for funding for Phase 2.

Yes, I and my company have a financial interest in seeing this through. But we gave steep discounts on the software so that it would get DONE. And then…nothing."

http://www.cis.org/Krikorian/HosamSmadiandUSVISIT

From the Center for Immigration Studies

Unbelievable that the government does not address any of the visa overstays. Oh, yeah! CIR is the front and center legislation, and probably the healthcare mess is just something to keep us busy so we don't notice anything else.

Jordanian in downtown Dallas bomb plot stayed on expired visa

12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 30, 2009

By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
tgillman@dallasnews.com / The Dallas Morning News
Dianne SolÃ*s in Dallas contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON – Like millions of others classified by the government as illegal immigrants, the Jordanian teen accused of plotting to blow up a Dallas office tower last week arrived in the United States legally and stayed long after his visa expired.

Federal immigration officials said Tuesday that Hosam Smadi, 19, arrived on a visitor visa, not a student visa as initially believed, in spring 2007.

The difference is crucial: For foreign students, dropping out of school triggers a report to a central database and, often, a follow-up by immigration authorities. For those who arrive as tourists or workers, it's almost certain authorities won't take notice unless they apply for a driver's license, get pulled over or arrested or call attention to themselves.

Officials in several federal agencies were reluctant to say much more about Smadi on Tuesday, citing the ongoing investigation. It's unclear when Smadi or his parents obtained the visa – Jordanians can receive visas that expire in five years, so he could have been as young as 11 or 12.

Once a visa-holder arrives with a "B2" visitor visa – the sort Smadi apparently received – he has six months to seek an extension or leave the United States.

Jordanian authorities say he spent time in detention when he was 14 or so, for a theft his father says he had reported to teach his son a lesson. It's unclear if U.S. authorities knew about that case, nor whether it would have held up his visa if they did.

However he got here and however long he stayed, Smadi came under scrutiny because, the FBI alleges, he expressed jihadist views on a monitored Web site.

"Unfortunately, a lot of people are coming in for the wrong reasons – to harm Americans or kill Americans, rather than as an innocent tourist," said Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. "Once you come into the country on a tourist visa, you've passed 'Go.' People know they're home free and there's no effort made to keep track of them."

In 1996, Smith wrote a bill – signed into law by President Bill Clinton – requiring the federal government to create a system to track both the entry and exit of foreign visitors. Thirteen years later, it's still a work in progress.

The Homeland Security Department has been building a system called U.S.-VISIT for several years.

The system compares biometric data with security databases, mostly to ensure that a foreigner arriving at a U.S. airport or land crossing isn't using someone else's passport. The data is stored. But, since most ports of entry don't identify departing foreigners, it's almost useless for tracking how many people – let alone which individuals – stayed longer than they were supposed to.

Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, don't dispute that.

Four of the hijackers involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had overstayed their visas, and that issue has vexed policymakers and informed the nation's immigration debate for years.

Immigrant advocates agree that relatively little effort is expended to track down people who overstay their visas – though, unlike Smith and others, they say that's fine.

"The government doesn't monitor computers and say: 'Aha.' Quite honestly, we don't have the resources for that," said Crystal Williams, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "Mostly what you'll pick up are people who are just trying to earn a living. I would rather see those resources spent on people who really mean us harm."

The immigration department has a National Fugitive Operations Program that tracks down foreigners who arrived without permission, and also those who arrived legally but stayed longer than their visas allowed. The top priority is to find people who pose a threat to public safety – people with known terrorist links or criminal records, or active arrest warrants.

A teenager with no known criminal record would not rise to the top of such a list.

The immigration agency posts a list of 15 "most-wanted criminal aliens." Not one is wanted for an act of terrorism. Most are accused of human smuggling or lewd acts involving children.

After Sept. 11, the government required males age 16 to 70 from a number of countries, most of them predominantly Muslim, to report their whereabouts. The backlash was intense, and the program was largely abandoned.

Washington is spending about $300 million per year implementing US-VISIT (the acronym stands for Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology).

The issue of visa overstays, and other elements of the Dallas case, may come up today at a Senate hearing featuring Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and FBI Director Robert Mueller, focused on the domestic terrorism threat since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Napolitano's predecessor in the Bush administration, Michael Chertoff, estimated that up to 40 percent of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants had earned that status by overstaying their visas.

"We are at the same place we were before 9/11," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates immigration restriction. "There's been some but not much progress."

Staff writer Dianne SolÃ*s in Dallas contributed to this report.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 2111d.html

"Overstays on student visas is a tremendous problem," said Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), a member of the House Immigration Subcommittee. "Now approximately 60 percent of the people in the United States are here illegally. They overstayed. They never went home. And some of the 9/11 hijackers were people who did that very thing."

I see...perhaps it's time we reduce foreign student visas by 60% since they seem to be a mechanism used by some illegal aliens to gain entry and those wishing to do harm upon the US and it's citizens.

"Overstays on student visas is a tremendous problem," said Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), a member of the House Immigration Subcommittee. "Now approximately 60 percent of the people in the United States are here illegally. They overstayed. They never went home. And some of the 9/11 hijackers were people who did that very thing."

I see...perhaps it's time we reduce foreign student visas by 60% since they seem to be a mechanism used by some illegal aliens to gain entry and those wishing to do harm upon the US and it's citizens.

October 12, 2009
U.S. Can’t Trace Foreign Visitors on Expired Visas
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. and JULIA PRESTON

DALLAS — Eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country.

New concern was focused on that security loophole last week, when Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian who had overstayed his tourist visa, was accused in court of plotting to blow up a Dallas skyscraper.

Last year alone, 2.9 million foreign visitors on temporary visas like Mr. Smadi’s checked in to the country but never officially checked out, immigration officials said. While officials say they have no way to confirm it, they suspect that several hundred thousand of them overstayed their visas.

Over all, the officials said, about 40 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States came on legal visas and overstayed.

Mr. Smadi’s case has brought renewed calls from both parties in Congress for Department of Homeland Security officials to complete a universal electronic exit monitoring system.

Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said the Smadi case “points to a real need for an entry and exit system if we are serious about reducing illegal immigration.â€

Homeland security officials caution that universal exit monitoring is a daunting and costly goal, mainly because of the nation’s long and busy land borders, with more than one million crossings every day. The wrong exit plan, they said, could clog trade, disrupt border cities and overwhelm immigration agencies with information they could not effectively use.

People unnamed "Homeland security officials" that don't want to do something sound so stupid.

It's called an exit card that they pick up at the airport customs/border crossing and fill out, stick a thumb print(thumb scan) on it and hand it to the last BP agent they see on their way out of the country. If they "forget" to fill it out... no re-entry. No excuses. They should have to surrender their visa documents too. They will no longer need them. Match those cards to the expiration dates, then you know who is hanging out illegally, which should never be eligible for citizenship, just swift deportation.

It ain't that hard and it ain't that expensive.

Dixie

Was added to the Homepage early this morning:
http://www.alipac.us/article-4584--0-0.html