DHS Law Enforcement Officers Or Presidential Edict Enforcement Officers? - Michael Cutler

by Michael Cutler

To create an environment where our immigration enforcement officers are intimidated into not doing their jobs seriously undermines national security.

Our immigration laws and our borders are America’s first and last line of defense against international terrorists, transnational criminals and other foreign nationals whose presence in the United States would undermine national security, public safety and the overall well-being of America and Americans.

Yet the president has decided that the political component of this issue justifies his issuing edicts that contradict current laws. He has also apparently decided to “double down” when, during an interview on MSNBC he made it clear that any Border Patrol agent or any ICE agent who attempts to enforce the immigration laws that contradict his illegal edicts would face serious consequences. This is a not-so veiled threat. Once again we find that we live in a thugocracy.

The Blog on the Weekly Standard posted a copy of a video of Mr. Obama’s statements under the title, “Obama: ‘Consequences’ for ICE Officials Who Don’t Follow Executive Amnesty.”
Imagine the impact that this has on those valiant officials who routinely go in harm’s way to enforce those laws and, in so doing, protect and defend our nation and our citizens. Most folks who have never carried a badge and engaged in law enforcement don’t realize that law enforcement officers engage in routine confrontations with those who are believed to be violating laws. Motorists are encouraged to never make contact with the driver of a car that may have cut him off or in one way or another created a problem. The point is to not have a confrontation.

When a federal agent or a police officer makes an arrest, the person taken into custody may decide to attempt to discredit the law enforcement officer or, perhaps, create a problem for that officer by making accusations. While it is absolutely essential that all law enforcement officers conduct themselves in the most professional way possible, it is also important that the government agency they work for back them up when it would appear that they conducted themselves properly.

The president of the United States is not only the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces but of our federal law enforcement agencies. Mr. Obama has made it abundantly clear that where immigration is concerned, DHS enforcement personnel have got to play an extremely defensive game, or else!

The pronouncements of Mr. Obama have all but stopped short of requiring that a modified version of the famed Miranda Warning be issued to those agents. The version that they are, for all intents and purposes being served with would say, in part, “…anything you do can and will be used against you!”

Agents have an insightful saying, “Big cases- big problems; little cases- little problems; no cases- no problems!”

The bottom line is that if an agent does not confront an alien and does not seek to make an arrest, he/she will not have anything to worry about. The message to our immigration enforcement personnel is crystal clear — the safest course of action is no action.

To create an environment where our immigration enforcement officers are intimidated into not doing their jobs seriously undermines national security.

Mr. Obama drew a comparison between immigration law enforcement officers and members of the armed forces insisting that in both professions, orders must be followed. Two point must be made.

1. The orders must, first of all, be legal.

2. The comparison between immigration law enforcement and our military services is valid — in a manner of speaking, our armed forces are charged with keeping our enemies as far from our borders as possible. You could think of this mission as being external border security. However, when aliens succeed in getting close to our borders, the Border Patrol takes up the mission. Finally, the agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) serve as the backup to the Border Patrol and to instil integrity into the other components of the immigration system.

The media has reported on how Border Patrol agents and ICE agents have been ordered to make certain that they do not take aliens into custody if they are eligible for relief from deportation. What has never been reported as that this is the way that these agents have always conducted themselves. Law enforcement officers are not thugs they are sworn to enforce the immigration laws. It is not only pointless but counterproductive to arrest an alien who is not subject to deportation or other adverse action based on standing immigration and other laws.

On a personal note, I will never forget the day when I was an INS special agent and I encountered an alien I believed was subject to deportation. The young man was in his early 20’s and clearly distraught . He was very emotional and as I questioned him he made some remark about how he did not know how he could tell his father who had served in the United States military, that he had violated our laws. As soon as he made the statement I questioned him about his father and his immigration status. I tracked down his father’s immigration file and found out that he had become a naturalized citizen when the guy I arrested was in his early teens. Under our laws the young man I arrested had, unbeknownst to him, acquired derivative United States citizenship.

Everyone in the office was ecstatic to find out that this young man was actually a United States citizen. When I gave him the great news he hugged me and started crying. I don’t think anyone in my squad area had dry eyes. It was a wonderful day for everyone.

The accusation that it is “anti-immigrant” to insist that our immigration laws be effectively and fairly enforced, is a bald-faced lie. Our immigration laws, as they now stand, not only tell us who to kick out and who to keep out — all based on the safety and well-being of America and Americans — but also tell us who to admit. Every year, under our current immigration laws, the United States admits roughly one millions lawful immigrants and naturalizes hundreds of thousands of new American citizensh.

Law enforcement officers regard our laws the way that a chef sees a recipe. The way we enforce the laws can be modified, within tight constraints, by operating instruction and policy directives. However, these directives do not generally contradict standing laws.

Under the current administration this has all changed drastically.

During my 30-year career with the former INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) the closest we ever came to the current situation created by Mr. Obama was created by Jimmy Carter. Under the Carter administration’s policies, during the census, we were ordered to seek authorization from our superiors before we arrested illegal aliens we encountered. Our bosses, in turn, were required to seek authorization from INS Headquarters. We were told that this was being done to enable census takers to count as many people as possible, especially illegal aliens.

We concluded that this was being done as a form of gerrymandering. The idea was that most illegal aliens, especially back then, lived in the large cities. Those large cities tended to vote for Democratic candidates. Apparently the goal was to attempt to have those large cities amass more congressional seats and also more votes in the Electoral College.

However, not even Carter would order us to provide lawful status to millions of illegal aliens we encountered. We simply made a note of those encounters in our reports and take no action against those aliens.

Mr. Obama as exponentially amped up the way that he is willing to play politics with immigration. Furthermore, during the Carter administration, the United States was not fighting a war on terrorists who were threatening to carry out violent acts in the United States.

What is generally never discussed by the politicians from either the Democratic or Republican parties is that our immigration laws are among the most important in combatting international terrorists. Consider, if you will, that Al Capone, the notorious gangster who was involved in a wide array of violent crimes, was ultimately imprisoned for tax law violations that had nothing to do with his other crimes. It was an easy way for prosecutors to finally get their hooks into him and take him off the streets.

For international terrorists, immigration laws provide endless possibilities — but only if our agents are out there doing their jobs.

Immigration laws come in two broad categories, administrative laws and criminal laws. 
Administrative laws seek to strip an alien who violates these laws of any lawful status such aliens may have acquired and seek his/her removal (deportation) from the United States.

Criminal immigration laws are not unlike other criminal statutes which seek to impose punishment (a jail sentence, a fine or both) upon those found guilty of such violations.

International terrorists often violate our immigration laws in order to enter the United States and embed themselves.

Thus far most terrorists who have gained entry into the United States have done so by committing fraud on their applications for visas and for applications for immigration benefits such as political asylum, resident alien status and even United States citienship, by lying about their affiliation with criminal or terrorist organizations. They may have also lied about other material facts. Lying on those applications is a felony.

When such lies come to light, opportunities to make arrests and perhaps seek to gain the coopeation of those arrest suddenly become possible.

On November 10, 2014 Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) posted my commentary: “Lack of Intelligence in Failures to Enforce Immigration Laws.”

Yet advocates for Comprehensive Immigration Reform are eager to use this inept and dysfunctional system to provide unknown millions of aliens with lawful status without so much as a face-to-face interview let alone an actual field investigation to verify information contained in those applications.

I can tell you that in my own personal experiences as an agent, very often bad guys, including those engaged in terrorism are not known to law enforcement or intelligence agencies. There are times when I encountered an illegal alien is encountered and began digging into his/her background, that their previously unknown involvement with criminal or terrorist organizations suddenly came to light as their applications for visas are reviewed.

Aliens who engage in visa fraud in support of terrorism face a 25 year maximum prison sentence. Such violations only come to light after an investigation is initiated.

Immigration law enforcement can be instrumental in uncovering criminal and terrorist organizations and plots. This is precisely why immigration agents have always been assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).

This is a bit like the lottery where, “You have to be in it- to win it!”

Here is how the immigration laws deal with such lies in applications for visas or relating documents:

18 U.S. Code § 1546 – Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents
Here is what is contained in this important section of law:
(a) Whoever knowingly forges, counterfeits, alters, or falsely makes any immigrant or nonimmigrant visa, permit, border crossing card, alien registration receipt card, or other document prescribed by statute or regulation for entry into or as evidence of authorized stay or employment in the United States, or utters, uses, attempts to use, possesses, obtains, accepts, or receives any such visa, permit, border crossing card, alien registration receipt card, or other document prescribed by statute or regulation for entry into or as evidence of authorized stay or employment in the United States, knowing it to be forged, counterfeited, altered, or falsely made, or to have been procured by means of any false claim or statement, or to have been otherwise procured by fraud or unlawfully obtained; or
Whoever, except under direction of the Attorney General or the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or other proper officer, knowingly possesses any blank permit, or engraves, sells, brings into the United States, or has in his control or possession any plate in the likeness of a plate designed for the printing of permits, or makes any print, photograph, or impression in the likeness of any immigrant or nonimmigrant visa, permit or other document required for entry into the United States, or has in his possession a distinctive paper which has been adopted by the Attorney General or the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service for the printing of such visas, permits, or documents; or
Whoever, when applying for an immigrant or nonimmigrant visa, permit, or other document required for entry into the United States, or for admission to the United States personates another, or falsely appears in the name of a deceased individual, or evades or attempts to evade the immigration laws by appearing under an assumed or fictitious name without disclosing his true identity, or sells or otherwise disposes of, or offers to sell or otherwise dispose of, or utters, such visa, permit, or other document, to any person not authorized by law to receive such document; or
Whoever knowingly makes under oath, or as permitted under penalty of perjury under section 1746 of title 28, United States Code, knowingly subscribes as true, any false statement with respect to a material fact in any application, affidavit, or other document required by the immigration laws or regulations prescribed thereunder, or knowingly presents any such application, affidavit, or other document which contains any such false statement or which fails to contain any reasonable basis in law or fact—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 25 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate an act of international terrorism (as defined in section 2331 of this title)), 20 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate a drug trafficking crime (as defined in section 929 (a) of this title)), 10 years (in the case of the first or second such offense, if the offense was not committed to facilitate such an act of international terrorism or a drug trafficking crime), or 15 years (in the case of any other offense), or both.
(b) Whoever uses—
(1) an identification document, knowing (or having reason to know) that the document was not issued lawfully for the use of the possessor,
(2) an identification document knowing (or having reason to know) that the document is false, or
    (3) a false attestation, for the purpose of satisfying a requirement of section 274A(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than          5 years, or both.
(c) This section does not prohibit any lawfully authorized investigative, protective, or intelligence activity of a law enforcement agency of the United States, a State, or a subdivision of a State, or of an intelligence agency of the United States, or any activity authorized under title V of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (18 U.S.C. note prec. 3481). ^[1] For purposes of this section, the term “State” means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, and any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States.

On February 25, 2015, The Daily Caller published my commentary, “Political Asylum: How America’s Compassion Creates National Security Nightmares” which focused on the lack of integrity to the process by which political asylum applications are adjudicated creates vulnerabilities for America and Americans.

My opinion piece was predicated on a February 12, 2015 ABC News report, “U.S. Officials Admit Concern Over Syrian Refugee Effort.”

This is hardly the first time I have written or discussed the vulnerabilities created by the failures of the immigration system especially where the process by which applications for immigration benefits are adjudicated.

Back on February 8, 2014 I was interviewed by Tucker Carlson when I was a guest on Fox & Friends to discuss how the administration had unilaterally decided to eliminate the bar against providing political asylum to aliens who may have had incidental contacts with terrorists or terror organizations.

Fox News posted the video of my interview under the title, “New immigration exemptions putting US at risk?” /‘Loose’ terror ties allowed for asylum

Tucker is not only one of the hosts on Fox & Friends but is also the editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller.

As I noted during my interview with Tucker last year, inasmuch as am the grandson of a woman who was slaughtered in Poland during the Holocaust, I am particularly sensitive to the need for our nation to treat people with compassion and protect those who are vulnerable and are at risk. However, it is clear that failures of the vetting process and a lack of integrity to the immigration system have provided all too many aliens with criminal and terror intentions to enter the United States, thereby undermining public safety and national security.

Permitting America’s compassion and kindness to be turned against our nation and our citizens is unacceptable!

On May 2, 2013, I was interviewed by Megyn Kelly of Fox News to discuss the immigration component of the terror bombing of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013.
Fox News posted a video of the discussion under the title: “Immigration Expert: The System Failed in Boston and Keeps on Failing.”

On December 19, 2014 Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) posted my extensive article: “Obama’s ‘Gift’ to International Terrorists: Immigration Executive Action”
On January 23, 2015 FrontPage Magazine published my article: “Sleeper Cells: The Immigration Component of the Threat.”

The 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel detailed numerous examples of instances where terrorists not only made use of visa and immigration benefit fraud to enter the United States but to also embed themselves in the United States.

Although there is evidence that some land and sea border entries (of terrorists) without inspection occurred, these conspirators mainly subverted the legal entry system by entering at airports.4
In doing so, they relied on a wide variety of fraudulent documents, on aliases, and on government corruption. Because terrorist operations were not suicide missions in the early to mid-1990s, once in the United States terrorists and their supporters tried to get legal immigration status that would permit them to remain here, primarily by committing serial, or repeated, immigration fraud, by claiming political asylum, and by marrying Americans. Many of these tactics would remain largely unchanged and undetected throughout the 1990s and up to the 9/11 attack.
Thus, abuse of the immigration system and a lack of interior immigration enforcement were unwittingly working together to support terrorist activity. It would remain largely unknown, since no agency of the United States government analyzed terrorist travel patterns until after 9/11. This lack of attention meant that critical opportunities to disrupt terrorist travel and, therefore, deadly terrorist operations were missed.

Meanwhile the administration is essentially ordering our immigration law enforcement officers along our borders and from within the United States stand down!

This alone should convince ISIS to give the president the “MVP Award.” However, second place for that award should also be given to the politicians from both parties, who continue to push for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.


Michael Cutler

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/michael-cutler/dhs-law-enforcement-officers-or-presidential-edict-enforcement-officers/

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