Counterterrorism Blog

Since the May 22 release of the Pew research poll findings related to views held by Muslims in America, there has been much analysis and discussion about what it all means. The information from the poll is clearly useful, and will be debated for some time. Perhaps among the most controversial, if not disturbing, findings of the poll are the results reflecting the notable minority support among some young Muslims in the US for suicide attacks in “defense of Islam.” Notwithstanding all the religious and cultural arguments some may posture to the contrary, that action, suicide attacks in defense of Islam, from the perspective of the United States and most Americans, constitutes terrorism. The most conservative analysis of these numbers from the poll suggests such support exists among some 184,000 Muslims residing inside the United States.

The poll also noted that 65% of Muslims residing in the US are foreign born. Of course, some of those have become naturalized US citizens, while others remain foreign nationals, aliens, with various immigration statuses. It might be reasonable to assume the younger part of the US Muslim population would be native-born US citizens; however, that segment of the Muslim population is also more likely to have the larger portion of nonimmigrant foreign students. For the sake of this proposal, I will simply accept and utilize Pew’s 65% figure.

If, conservatively, there are 184,000 Muslims inside the US who support suicide attacks in defense of Islam, and 65% of those are likely foreign born, that is more than 119,000. What this means is the Pew research poll has just handed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a very large new potential counter-terrorism caseload. While not all those 119,000 will still be aliens, and not all will have violated any provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), an alien who supports terrorist action, even if it is in defense of his or her religion, should righteously be of investigative interest to immigration law enforcement authorities.

There are specific criminal and administrative provisions of the INA related to aliens who engage in or who support terrorism or who are otherwise involved in matters that are a threat to public safety and national security. Even persons who have become naturalized US citizens who are found to have been involved in such activities or affiliations before they naturalized and failed to disclose them may be subject to either criminal or civil enforcement action.

The Pew research poll results, from an immigration perspective, frankly is no surprise. It does potentially provide some hard numerical statistics indicating a level of radicalized support among Islamic aliens within the US. ICE is an agency that, since its creation in 2003, has been in some state of turmoil and has yet to fully realize its operational potential. That is not the fault of the hard-working law enforcement personnel in the field but more the result of conflicted mission structure and management.

ICE is the result of the forced merger of what was US Customs Office of Investigations and the former INS Investigations Division and Detention & Removal Division. Politicians in Congress and the Administration at the time merely saw the border nexus of Customs and INS missions and not much more and assumed merging the agencies at the interior enforcement level would simply work. It hasn’t. Customs, a historic legacy Federal law enforcement agency with a streamlined criminal investigative structure and systems, was forced to acquire the hard-working but ill-equipped and ill-structured INS Special Agent cadre who came from an agency that was more akin to a loosely connected group of Middle Ages fiefdoms than a modern Federal law enforcement organization. Within ICE, former Customs OI managers have risen to the forefront in most senior management positions and, not surprisingly, they have shown little interest, or skill, in the critically important arena of serious immigration law enforcement matters. Former senior INS managers on the law enforcement side have largely retired. But the real problem lies with mission conflict. The investigative mission of what had been US Customs is simply very different from the investigative mission of what had been the INS and no one really listened to the professionals in both agencies who warned against this before ICE was created. Now, it is what it is and it does not work very well.

Which takes us back to the Pew poll results. ICE has trouble dealing with its existing counter-terrorism and national security missions. A recent study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) revealed out of more than 800,000 deportation cases DHS charged only 12 with terrorism related violations. TRAC claims this is indicative of DHS not focusing enough on its CT/NS mission. DHS responded by claiming much of its routine enforcement efforts link to CT/NS and deter terrorism...essentially a version of the “Al Capone” enforcement approach. Having worked that “Al Capone” approach for many years before I retired, I generally side with DHS on this one; however, TRAC is also not without an argument.

DHS, and ICE in particular, is notably hamstrung in its counter-terrorism and other national security missions due to the aforementioned issues combined with the always present “not enough resources.” ICE tries, but it is a major uphill effort. No one should expect that ICE will recognize the huge potential in this Pew data and actually do anything meaningful with it...but that’s not really the fault of ICE. At least not the field ICE agents.

The recently released DHS/OIG report, released under FOIA to the Washington Times, about Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles in June 2004 wherein 13 Middle Eastern men acted suspiciously and were questioned post-flight by Federal agents, provides some additional insight into the immigration capabilities relative to counter-terrorism. The OIG report revealed that upon arrival at LAX, the Federal Air Marshals (FAM) and FBI interviewed the 13 suspects. At no point did any of the on-site Federal agents call for assistance from ICE or Customs and Border Protection (CBP)...the immigration law enforcement authorities...even though the on-site FAM reviewed and copied the passports and visa documents of twelve of the thirteen and discovered twelve, Syrians, appeared to have overstayed their authorized period of stay - probable cause to detain them. The investigating FAM claimed he thought he had no authority to ask for help from immigration authorities. And this from a Federal agent within the same Federal department as the Federal immigration law enforcement authorities! Add to this the fact the FBI, since 2003, has had authority to enforce immigration law violations. Clearly, there was a breakdown as a result of policy, resources and management.

Adding 100,000+ potential new CT cases to DHS/ICE under these circumstances won’t help matters. But it does give us, and the Congress, a numerical idea of the nature of a problem with potential radical Islamic aliens within the United States who might be subject to enforcement action under the Immigration and Nationality Act and who may potentially be a viable subject for investigation by a properly constituted immigration investigative enforcement agency.