Hi Gang:
I have attached an article that appears in today’s edition of the Washington Times that is worth considering. According to the article, Senator Joseph Lieberman is leading a bipartisan effort to strip United States citizens of their citizenship if they become terrorists.
Certainly this is an interesting idea. I have no problem with this concept but I would add another issue that needs to be considered- how about making certain that we also don’t provide United States citizenship to aliens involved in terrorism?
I would remind you that Faisal Shahzad, the “Times Square Bomber” was a naturalized United States citizen!
The way that United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has made the rapid processing of massive numbers of applications for various immigration benefits including the conferring of lawful immigrant (resident alien status) and United States citizenship upon aliens- quality control has gone out the window! As I have noted on ever so many other occasions, the way that the hapless adjudicators at USCIS are prodded, cajoled and otherwise induced to move the bureaucratic conveyor belt as quickly as possible is reminiscent of the way that Lucy and Ethel in a particularly hilarious episode of “I Love Lucy” were expected to wrap morsels of candy that was delivered to them on a conveyor belt. At first the conveyor belt moves at a reasonable pace and they manage to properly wrap each bonbon with no drama. Then the belt begins to pick up speed and the fun begins! The two women try to keep up but are quickly unable to deal with the onslaught of the bonbons as the belt continues to accelerate. They try to eat some of the candy and stuff other morsels of candy down their clothes while the belt continues to go ever faster, ultimately causing the candy to hurtle at them at warp speed.
If you don’t recall that episode or are too young to have seen it, here is a link to a video of that segment- just turn up the volume on your computer and click on the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wp3m1vg06Q
As the belt picks of speed, Lucy is heard to tell her friend Ethel, “I think we are fighting a losing game!”
The segment is extremely funny- but now imagine that Lucy and Ethel are adjudicators at USCIS and instead of candy flying at them they are inundated with applications for various immigration benefits including citizenship. Consider how United States citizenship given to a terrorist has severe national security implications.
The adjudications officers at USCIS are also “fighting a losing game!” If they lose- we all lose!
I wonder how many politicians who are willing to score political points by voting for the bill to strip citizens of the United States of their citizenship would in a highly contradictory manner, vote for Comprehensive Immigration Reform which would have the effect of causing the bureaucratic conveyor belt at USCIS to have to move at least three or four times as fast as it is now!
Today USCIS processes more than six million applications for various immigration benefits. Imagine if USCIS would suddenly be inundated with 40 million applications for amnesty filed by illegal aliens whose presence in our country violates our nation’s laws. Now remember that, as the advocates for open borders and massive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens refer to these illegal aliens as being “undocumented.” Please consider what the term undocumented means. Here is how the Online Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the term “undocumented:”
undocumented
Main Entry: un·doc·u·ment·ed
Pronunciation: \?n-?dä-ky?-?men-t?d\
Function: adjective
Date: 1867
: not documented: as a : not supported by documentary evidence
Stop and consider that this really means- an undocumented alien is an alien who has no evidence to substantiate who he (she) is. Just as Lucy and Ethel did not have enough time to wrap the candy that was hurtling at them at warp speed, the adjudicators would not have time to attempt to verify the true identities of the aliens whose applications the adjudicators would have to process. There would be absolutely no readily available way of knowing the true names of these aliens. Therefore there would be no readily available way of figuring out their true nationalities, the backgrounds or their possible affiliation with criminal or terrorist organizations.
You may be wondering how I came up with the number 40 million. Here is how I came to use that random number:
When the Amnesty of 1986 was sold to the Congress and the American people we were told by Senator Kennedy and others that somewhere between 1 million and 1.5 million aliens would be enticed into stepping “out of the shadows.” Of course we were also told that this would be a “one shot” operation- never to be repeated again. When the bureaucratic dust settled, it was estimated that between 3.5 million and 4 million aliens stepped out of the shadows.
There are two factors that probably contributed to this- first there may well have been a drastic miscalculation as to the true number of illegal aliens. Perhaps this was intentional or unintentional. There is, of course no way to know. The second factor is that just as it was impossible to determine the true identities of these millions of illegal aliens,- indeed, because there was no readily available way of knowing their true identities, there was no way of knowing how long any of these aliens had actually been present in the United States. If an alien who applied for amnesty under the 1986 program had used multiple identities- how would you even begin to determine when, where or how they entered the United States? The truth is- you cannot!
Today we are told that there are between 12 million and 20 million illegal aliens present in the United States living in “the shadows.” (It sure must be getting crowded in those shadows!)
If history was to repeat itself- you do the math!
Also understand that members of Congress and the citizens of our nation were promised that the 1986 amnesty would be a “one shot” program- never to be repeated! No wonder they got the numbers wrong- they apparently could not count past “one!”
So we come back to Mr. Lieberman and his tough sounding proposal- strip citizens involved with terrorism of their citizenship!
Again I ask- Why not make certain that we don’t give the bad guys who are aliens, citizenship in the first place?
There is virtually no integrity to the process by which applications for citizenship are processed by USCIS now- how about dedicating more resources to USCIS now and stop the nonsense of insisting on placing God knows how many illegal aliens on a “Pathway to United States Citizenship” that Comprehensive Immigration Reform would provide to aliens who never should have entered our country in the first place?
Smoke and mirrors may be useful to magicians who are trying to deceive their audience in order to entertain them. The time has come to understand that smoke and mirrors may keep the magician’s audience from seeing what is going on but it does not keep Americans from understanding how they are being betrayed by their “leaders.”
I will remind you that immigration benefit fraud was determined by the 911 Commission to be a tactic employed by terrorists to enter our country and then embed themselves in our country.
In July of 2006 I testified before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims on the national security implications of the proposed legislation that was being considered by the United States Senate, S.2611 (Comprehensive Immigration Reform). Here is a link to a portion of the video of my testimony at that hearing:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4127670560538123883&ei=UMKGStSPFs-mlQeJsZ2vDg&q=michael+cutle&hl=en&client=firefox-a
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 the GAO has issued a number of reports that were written following investigations into the issue of immigration fraud. Here is a link to nine such reports here
An additional GAO report worth reviewing was entitled:
“Immigration Benefits: Additional Controls and a Sanctions Strategy Could Enhance DHS’s Ability to Control Benefit Fraud”
Here is a link to a portion of that report: (The actual report is apparently no longer available online)
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-259
Here is the introduction to the material available online: (Please pay special attention to the highlighted first sentence of that report- for you convenience I have copied it immediately below:)
In 2002, GAO reported that immigration benefit fraud was pervasive and significant and the approach to controlling it was fragmented. Experts believe that individuals ineligible for these benefits, including terrorists and criminals, could use fraudulent means to enter or remain in the U.S.
If our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!
We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.
My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.
The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.
Any politician who refuses to work to secure our borders and create an immigration system that has integrity is either corrupt or too dumb to keep his (her) job. Any politician, irrespective of party affiliation who favors Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the outrageous betrayal that this would represent given the national security implications that this program would have, should be shown the door at the next election!
If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same.
Later this year, each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. Later this year more than one third of the members of the United States Senate will have to face their constituents. They need to be reminded that they work for us, We the People!
However, the practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.
The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!
The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians.I implore you to get involved!
If this situation 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!
All I ask is that you 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-