Counterterrorism Blog

I do not know how many times I have made the point that United States citizenship represents the "Keys to the Kingdom." United States citizenship opens all sorts of doors to those who do not wish to share the "American Dream" but rather create a nightmare for our nation and our citizens. United States citizenship enables the alien who acquires United States citizenship to be able to work at any job he or she is qualified to do. It enables the person in question to be given security clearances that provide access to highly sensitive intelligence and enables such individuals to embed themselves in our nation and hide in plain sight among us.

Time and time again, we have seen how terrorists and spies have gamed the immigration system to acquire legitimate immigration status and even United States citizenship in furtherance of their nefarious objectives. This Justice Department press release chronicles the most recent example of how Nada Nadim Prouty, an individual linked to a terrorist organization, managed to become a resident alien based on her marriage to a United States citizen and then, ultimately naturalize. This made her eligible to hold a high security clearance and use that access to intelligence and information against our nation.

I find it a bit ironic that, as I have often noted in public appearances including when I have testified before Congressional hearings that as someone once noted, "An effective spy is someone who would not attract the attention of a waiter or waitress at a greasy spoon diner." I have gone on to say that in point of fact, the same could be said of an effective terrorist and, indeed, it might well be that the waiter or waitress in such an establishment might be, in fact, a spy or terrorists.

You will note in the highlighted sections of the DOJ press release that the defendant and terrorist in this article, Nada Nadim Prouty, a naturalized citizen from Lebanon was, in fact, identified as being a waitress who was, in reality, affiliated with Hezbollah, a known terrorist organization.

This is why it is patently absurd to think that as the President and other open borders advocates have continually said that if we allowed those aliens into our country who simply want to work and do the jobs "Americans won't do," we will be safer because then law enforcement and the intelligence community can focus on the terrorists who seek to enter our country to do us harm. Here is a startling clear example of a terrorist who apparently wanted to do nothing more serious than get a job. She was facilitated in her quest to embed herself in our country by a division of DHS, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in providing her with United States citizenship even though she had committed naturalization fraud.

Last year, you may recall, Senators Chuck Grassley and Sue Collins commissioned an investigation into allegations that USCIS claims to have "lost" 111,000 alien immigration files of aliens seeking a wide variety of immigration benefits including some 30,000 such aliens who were naturalized without their relating files! You can access this press release issued by Senator Grassley concerning this critical issue and the GAO report findings. You can also access a press release issued by Senator Sue Collins on this matter. Additionally, on March 10, 2006, Representative James F. Sensenbrenner, the then-chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, issued a press release concerning a GAO report that was issued on the day of his press release into the national security implications of immigration benefit fraud.

What we need to know is what is being done to create a system that possesses true integrity where the granting of immigration benefits is concerned. In point of fact, little is done to ferret out the fraud in the immigration benefits program. This must change. Immigration is not simply about building a fence on the border or even going after employers who knowingly employ easy to exploit illegal aliens. For immigration enforcement to be truly effective our government must also create an immigration benefits program that possesses meaningful integrity that identifies those who commit fraud to deter future such criminal violations. This would require that ICE employ many thousands of additional special agents who conduct effective proactive investigations into immigration benefit fraud. To ignore this critical component of immigration is to leave the door open to this sort of situation