by Michael Cutler
National security concerns should take center stage in immigration reform.
On January 30th President Trump delivered his much anticipated and
highly inspirational State of the Union Address. One of the subjects of
his address was a proposal for reforming the immigration system that
rests upon “four pillars.” One of those pillars seeks to resolve the
DACA dilemma by providing lawful status and a pathway to U.S.
citizenship for approximately 1.8 million illegal aliens, which includes
700,000 DACA recipients plus additional DACA-eligible individuals who,
for unknown reasons, did not apply while the program was in effect.
In exchange for this compromise, the White House is requesting the
creation of a $25 billion trust fund for border technology and
infrastructure with additional funding for personnel increases.
Additionally, the administration wants an end to so-called “chain
migration” limiting family-based visas to spouses and minor
children. The administration also wants to terminate the diversity visa
lottery, although visas would be used to clear the backlog of aliens who
are already waiting for family-based immigrant visas and for immigrant
visas for aliens possessing high-skills.
This solution may be well-intentioned, but ignores the findings and
recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, to which I provided
testimony. But before we even consider the 9/11 Commission, there are a
number of other critical reasons why this proposal is untenable.
There is no explanation as to how the administration came up with the
figure 1.8 million, but let’s first be clear that this would more than
double the number of aliens who were illegally granted temporary lawful
status by the Obama administration. Advocates for providing these aliens
with lawful status claimed that there was urgency to their demands
because on March 5th some of these hundreds of thousands of aliens would
lose their protection under DACA. However, there is certainly no
urgency for more than half of the 1.8 million, the illegal aliens
who did not apply to participate in DACA back before it was
discontinued. Perhaps it is the case that they weren’t actually here
then, but will now falsely claim that they were. Thus, without
the capacity to neither interview these applicants nor conduct field
investigations to seek to verify applicant information, the proposed fix
for DACA would create a climate that is conducive to enabling illegally
aliens to commit fraud that would go undiscovered.
As I recently noted,
Congress must be cautious with a DACA solution, as the figure
of 800,000 aliens supposedly eligible for the program is likely to
balloon to 3.6 million, according to the Migration Policy
Institute. There is no way to know how many illegal aliens will emerge
to claim that they entered the United States prior to their 16th birthdays in order to qualify for legal status.
In addition, there would be no way to stop the program once 1.8
million illegal aliens were processed for lawful status. Once started,
any effort to terminate the program would undoubtedly result in lawsuits
filed in every district across the United States.
If the Migration Policy Institute’s estimate is correct, 1.8 million
would represent only half the number of illegal aliens who might apply
for lawful status under DACA. If the Migration Policy Institute’s
estimate is wrong and 5 million or 10 million illegal aliens show up,
all of these aliens would be eligible for lawful status.
Furthermore, it would take years to build a wall along the
U.S./Mexican border. Until then illegal aliens could still run that
border -- every day -- until that border is made secure. And even after
completed, we would have to ask, “How secure is 'secure'?”
It must be anticipated that as the U.S./Mexican border is made more
secure, the desire of illegal aliens to gain entry into the United
States will not evaporate. These individuals will simply seek a
different means of entering the United States. For example, illegal
aliens will continue to enter the United States surreptitiously along
our nation’s 95,000 miles of meandering coastline by stowing away on
ships or simply coming ashore covertly, thereby evading the inspections
process conducted at our seaports.
When we get into our cars to go to work or head to the mall we often
listen to the traffic reports to find the best route to our destination
to bypass obstruction and overcome traffic delays. Aliens will similarly
seek to find the easiest way of entering the United States and it may
also include committing document fraud and visa fraud. Because aliens in
their 30s can file applications for this proposed program, if they
claim to have entered the United States prior to they 16th birthdays,
aliens could lie about their actual dates of entry. Indeed, aliens who
have yet to enter the U.S. could claim to have been here for years.
While the media focuses on the issue of providing these illegal aliens
with pathways to U.S. citizenship, the real danger to the United States
is providing these illegal aliens with lawful status and official
identity documents. The nexus between immigration fraud and national
security was the focus of my recent article, Immigration Fraud, The Lies That Kill. This is not just my concern, it was the concern of the 9/11 Commission.
The 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel detailed
numerous examples of instances where terrorists made use of visa and
immigration benefit fraud to enter the United States also 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.
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.
Terrorists in the 1990s, as well as the September 11 hijackers, needed
to find a way to stay in or embed themselves in the United States if
their operational plans were to come to fruition. As already discussed,
this could be accomplished legally by marrying an American citizen,
achieving temporary worker status, or applying for asylum after
entering. In many cases, the act of filing for an immigration benefit
sufficed to permit the alien to remain in the country until the petition
was adjudicated. Terrorists were free to conduct surveillance,
coordinate operations, obtain and receive funding, go to school and
learn English, make contacts in the United States, acquire necessary
materials, and execute an attack.
None of these other issues are addressed by the proposed DACA compromise.
I compare the wall on the southern border with a wing on an airplane.
While an airplane without a wing won’t fly, a wing, by itself goes
nowhere. Focusing only on procuring a wing like a wall on the Southern
border, but not on other vulnerabilities, may result in catastrophe, as
the 9/11 Commission findings demonstrate.
The President originally established the goal of hiring 10,000
additional agents for ICE. He must begin that hiring process
immediately. Furthermore, as I have noted in previous articles, ICE
conducts investigations into a wide variety of crimes and issues that
have no relationship to immigration law violations. These agents must
be assigned purely to the enforcement of our immigration laws from
within the interior of the United States, with a heavy focus on
immigration fraud.
President Trump was elected by Americans who understand the nexus
between secure borders and effectively immigration law enforcement and
national security and public safety. Political compromises must not
result in compromising national security or public safety.
Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269175/daca-solution-must-heed-911-commission-findings-michael-cutler
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