Michael Cutler on terror-linked migrants entering U.S.

By Andrew Cochran

Michael Cutler asked me to post his comments on the Associated Press article, "Terror-Linked Migrants Crossing Into U.S.", about the thousands smuggled into the U.S. from countries identified as state sponsors or supporters of terrorism:

The biggest challenge we face is the fact that the Border Patrol is lacking the resources to secure the border and even when they arrest aliens who have entered our country illegally, because of the so-called "Catch and Release" program in which aliens who are citizens of countries other than Mexico, or OTMs are permitted to travel to the interior of the United States where they are able to hide in plain sight because there is little done to seek those aliens who fail to show up for immigration hearings.

I have often made the point that New York has been declared to be the safest big city in the United States. A major reason for this is that while there are some 8 million residents in this city they are policed by a police department that has some 37,000 police officers. It has been estimated that there are at least twice as many illegal aliens in the United States as there are residents living in the City of New York. They are scattered across the entire country and they are policed by approximately 2,000 special agents who are dedicated to the enforcement of the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States. What do you suppose would happen to New York City's crime rate if there were only 2,000 cops patrolling the streets of New York? One thing is a virtual certainty, New York would most certainly forfeit its title of "Safest big city!"

It is also important to understand that the enforcement of the immigration laws within the interior of the United States needs to consist of more than simply looking for aliens who fail to show up for deportation hearings. We need adequate numbers of special agents to make certain that unscrupulous employers who hire illegal aliens face a realistic possibility of being discovered and fined, or even criminally charged in egregious situations. (To my understanding within the last year, only Walmart was fined for knowingly hiring illegal aliens.)

Special agents are also needed to conduct fraud investigations to lend integrity to the immigration benefits program which accords a wide variety of benefits to aliens in the United States ranging from replacing lost "green cards" to conferring lawful resident alien status and United States citizenship upon aliens. (In January 2002 the GAO issued a scathing report that said that immigration benefit fraud was a pervasive and severe problem throughout this critical program.) Additionally special agents are also supposed to attempt to locate and apprehend criminal aliens who have been deported because of their criminal convictions and then re-entered the United States illegally without proper authority, and in so-doing committed a serious felony upon their illegal return to the United States. Special agents are also supposed to conduct investigations into alien smuggling rings and participate in a variety of task forces such as the Drug Task Force and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

These are just the basic areas of responsibility for the special agents and there are merely 2,000 of these essential law enforcement officers for the entire United States. Additionally, since the merger of the former INS and Customs to form ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) the new special agents are not getting the Spanish language training that had been an essential component of the training for all former INS enforcement officers. It is estimated that some 80% of the illegal alien population in the United States is Spanish speaking. You simply cannot investigate people you cannot communicate with. I have raised this issue at a number of Congressional hearings at which I have testified and strongly recommended that law enforcement officers who are charged with enforcing the immigration laws be given additional language training to include strategic languages such as Arabic, Urdu and Farsi. To date, no foreign language training is being offered, let alone being mandated!

It is also worthwhile to consider that nearly half of the illegal alien population did not run our nation's borders in order to enter the United States, they entered the United States through ports of entry such as airports, meaning that the Border Patrol could not have prevented their entry. The 19 terrorists who attacked our nation September 11, 2001 did not run our borders but were admitted through ports of entry. At present, without meaningful numbers of trained and effectively lead special agents to back up the CBP inspectors at ports of entry and the beleaguered Border Patrol, we are in a situation that would be comparable to a baseball team that is hobbled whenever they take the field because they would not be permitted to have the outfielders take their positions in the outfield. Any batter who could hit the ball over the second baseman's head would score an in the park home run! It would be foolish to play baseball that way and potentially deadly to attempt to protect our nation from terrorists without the number of special agents we desperately need to secure our nation.

Additionally, the Visa Waiver Program continues, wherein aliens from 27 countries plus Canada do not need to apply for visas before coming to the United States. Biometric passports that had been initially required in lieu of requiring visas (a half measure at best) are still not being required. It is entirely possible that terrorists have either legitimately acquired citizenship in the so-called visa waiver countries, or obtained passports from these coutries either by fraud or through the corruption of passport issuing officials. This would greatly facilitate their travel to the United States.

The "All Clear" has most certainly not been sounded! Yesterday's attack on London should make that point abundantly clear to all of us especially our alleged leaders who simply want to give out free passes (guest worker visas) to individuals who contumaciously violated our borders and our laws upon entry into our country. Our politicians refuse to deal with reality. The article makes it clear that our border afford us virtually no protection. The potential that terrorists have entered our country and continue to seek to enter our country is great.

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