On May 20, 1997 I participated in my first Congressional hearing. That hearing was conducted by the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims and was entitled:
“VISA FRAUD AND IMMIGRATION BENEFITS APPLICATION FRAUD”
Of 94 terrorists who were identified by the 9/11 Commission as operating in our country, in the decade leading up to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, some 59 or roughly two-thirds of them were found to have committed immigration fraud to enter our country and/or embed themselves in our country. You will notice that the first quote I provide from the 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel makes particular not of the SAW (Seasonal Agricultural Worker) program. Schumer was a key architect of that program as a component of the disastrous amnesty of 1986. He is calling for it to be included in the Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation.
The following material is actually included in my closing remarks that I provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee when I testified before that legislative body on March 20, 2013:
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.
To cite an example, page 47 of the above-noted report contained the following paragraph:
“Once terrorists had entered the United States, their next challenge was to find a way to remain here. Their primary method was immigration fraud. For example, Yousef and Ajaj concocted bogus political asylum stories when they arrived in the United States. Mahmoud Abouhalima, involved in both the World Trade Center and landmarks plots, received temporary residence under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers (SAW) program, after falsely claiming that he picked beans in Florida.
“Mohammed Salameh, who rented the truck used in the bombing, overstayed his tourist visa. He then applied for permanent residency under the agricultural workers program, but was rejected.
“Eyad Mahmoud Ismail, who drove the van containing the bomb, took English-language classes at Wichita State University in Kansas on a student visa; after he dropped out, he remained in the United States out of status.”
Our nation is greatly benefited by the rich diversity of our people which is why I could never imagine living anywhere except New York City, arguably the most diverse city in our nation if not, in fact, the world. However, my idea of diversity most certainly does not include members of MS-13, the Mexican drug cartels or members of other transnational gangs or members of al-Qaeda or other terrorist organizations!
It is also vital that American workers never be made to compete with foreign workers for their jobs! (This requirement is a component of the Immigration Laws that are not being enforced today!)
If our government’s failures to secure our nation’s borders and effectively enforce our immigration laws that are intended to protect our nation and our citizens concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation!
We the People must make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!
We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.
This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!
You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!
Democracy is not a spectator sport!
Lead, follow or get out of the way!
-michael cutler-
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https://www.michaelcutler.net/
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In the 1950?s one of the most beloved television programs was “I Love Lucy,” one of the very first sit-coms, in which Lucille Ball played a lovable ditzy woman who managed to get into all sorts of mischief, often with the assistance of her “side-kick” Ethel Mertz played by Vivian Vance.
In a classic episode, Lucy and Ethel get a job at a candy factory wrapping morsels of candy bonbons that are delivered to them on a conveyor belt. They have a tyrannical boss who threatens to fire them if they miss any candy.
At first they have no problem dealing with the candy but, in short order, the belt picks up speed and the candy begins hurtling at them at warp speed. No matter how fast they work, they cannot keep pace. Out of desperation, they begin stuffing the bonbons down their dresses and try eating them, but to no avail.
Today there are hapless adjudications officers who work for USCIS, a division of the DHS that adjudicates applications for a variety of immigration benefits including the granting of political asylum and the conferring of resident alien status and United States citizenship upon aliens.
Not unlike Lucy and Ethel, the hapless adjudications officers at USCIS are under great pressure to approve nearly every application that is put on their desks. It only takes minutes to approve an application but can take hours of days to deny an application.
As the investigation of the Boston Marathon terror bombing proceeds, questions are rightfully being asked about how the two alleged terrorists, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, had been granted political asylum and lawful immigrant status and how Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could have been naturalized. Clearly these serious questions deserve serious answers.
On April 22, 3013 the Washington Times ran an article entitled 99.5 Percent of Illegal Immigrants Get Approval for Legal Status; High Number Raises Concerns about Fraud.
Clearly the adjudications officers need to satisfy their bosses who are, in turn, being pressured to clear up the backlog of applications. Unlike Lucy and Ethel, they cannot stuff the applications down their clothing and they cannot eat them, so the only they can do to keep pace with the ever accelerating bureaucratic conveyor belt is to approve nearly all of the applications they are given to process.
The Washington Times story begins with this statement:
The administration has approved 99.5 percent of applications of those who have applied for legal status under President Obama’s nondeportation policy for young adults, granting legal status to more than 250,000 formerly illegal immigrants.
The adjudications process is done without an in-person interview. This is an open invitation for fraud. Aliens who have criminal or terrorist affiliations could obtain official identity documents under false names.
This poses an obvious threat to national security. It must also be understood that if Comprehensive Immigration Reform was to be enacted millions or, more likely, tens of millions of applications filed by so called “undocumented” aliens and cannot prove who they are or when they actually entered the United States, would be able to easily game the immigration system the same way that the 9/11 Commission found that many terrorists had previously gamed the process to enter the United States and as an embedding tactic.
The terror attacks carried out in Boston should serve as a reminder that the all clear has not sounded and now, more than ever, our immigration laws must be effectively enforced. The often stated refrain that the “immigration system is broken” is primarily “broken” because the laws go unenforced and there is no integrity to the adjudications process.
In 2007, the last time Comprehensive Immigration Reform was debated, I wrote an Op-Ed for the Washington Times in which I suggested that the legislation should be given a more honest name- ”The Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act.”
That title is even more appropriate today than at any time in our past.