As I was checking news articles this evening, I came across an article that was authored by Congressional Representative Sue Myrick, a Republic member of Congress from the state of North Carolina that has provided me with yet another reason to not be able to sleep this evening.

The article in question appeared in the Washington Times this past Wednesday, September 1st- somehow I had apparently missed seeing this article when it first appeared. I decided to use Rep. Myrick article as the predication for my commentary this evening. As the saying goes- “Better late than never!”

I have provided you with her article [click here] and I have also decided to provide you with another disturbing news report that appeared in the Washington Times on April 21st of this year which I had previously used as a predication for a commentary a few months ago [click here]. This extremely disturbing news report was entitled, “Iran boosts Qods shock troops in Venezuela”

Here is an excerpt from the news report about the Iranian troops that are now stationed in Venezuela:

“Although its operations sometimes appear at odds with the public voice of the Iranian regime, it is not a rogue outfit,” the report says. “It receives direction from the highest levels of the government and its leaders report directly, albeit informally, to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,” the report says.

Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East specialist with the Congressional Research Service, said the report’s identification of Qods force operatives in Venezuela is significant.

“The new information on an increased Qods Force presence in Venezuela … amplifies the warnings of some experts about an increasingly close, anti-U.S. relationship between Iran and the government of Hugo Chavez,” Mr. Katzman said.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently played down the growing Iranian influence in the Chavez government. Asked about Iran’s ties to Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, Mr. Gates said, “I think it makes for interesting public relations on the part of the Iranians, the Venezuelans.”

It would appear that you can now add Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates who refuses to, at least publicly, acknowledge the extreme threat our nation’s unsecured borders pose to the security of our nation and to the survival of our citizens.

Let me repeat what Mr. Gates had to say about the presence of elite Iranian shock troops in Venezuela:
Mr. Gates said, “I think it makes for interesting public relations on the part of the Iranians, the Venezuelans.”

Mr. Gates thinks that the presence of elite Iranian shock troops in Venezuela makes for “interesting public relations?!”

I really and truly want to know how Mr. Gates would have described the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001!

You can add Mr. Gates pronouncement to several outrageous statements made by Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Surrender who has made numerous assertions that “the Mexican border is secure,” echoing Senator Schumer’s similar outrageous statements- making that baseless claim as a way of justifying the enactment of “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” that would provide tens of millions of illegal aliens whose true identities, nationalities, criminal or terrorist backgrounds in other countries are unknown and unknowable. There would be no way of knowing the intentions or affiliations that these illegal aliens may well have with criminal or terrorist organizations.

I would also urge you to remember that when an airliner and its crew and passengers were nearly reduced to rubble in the skies over Detroit last Christmas Day, Ms Napolitano quickly called a news conference to enthusiastically proclaim, “The system worked!”

The only reason that the “underwear bomber,” Nigerian citizen, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab did not succeed in his attempted terrorist attack was that his bomb did not detonate and quick acting passengers tackled him.

As the facts concerning this case slowly emerged it turned out that Mr. Abdulmutallab’s father, a prominent banker in Nigeria warned our government officials about his concerns that his son had become a radical Islamist and still our officials failed to cancel his visa and failed to keep him off of the airliner. There were a number of other failings, but the point is that the system most certainly did not work!

You may recall that I wrote a commentary shortly after Ms Napolitano’s public victory dance the day after that near tragedy in which I noted, “If hope is not a strategy, then dumb luck is not a success!”

The 9/11 Commission made it clear that the process by which visas are granted to aliens needs to be tightened up to prevent terrorists such as Abdulmutallab from getting on airplanes or other conveyances destined for the United States. The system needs to be tightened up to prevent terrorists from entering our country altogether. Yet, every few months our government, under this administration as well as under the preceding administration expanded the Visa Waiver Program with Greece having been added this past March! There are now a total of 36 countries who participate in the insane Visa Waiver Program- the citizens of these countries need not apply for a visa nor receive a visa before boarding airliners or otherwise traveling to the United States and seeking to enter our country.

(I would remind you that the 19 terrorists who attacked our nation nearly 9 years ago all managed to game the visa system and the immigration system to enter the United States and then embed themselves in our country once they succeeded in entering the United States.)

Estimates as to the number of aliens who have violated the terms of their admission into our country vary greatly- US VISIT, the program by which our country is supposed to track the entry and departure of aliens has never been fully implemented and recently it was disclosed that US VISIT would not make use of biometrics in order to make certain that this critical element of national security that was highly recommended by the 9/11 Commission! Add this to yet another glaring failure of the government of the United States!

However, it is estimated that no fewer than 5 million such visa violators are now present in our country. Incredibly ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has all of 272 special agents seeking to locate and apprehend those 5 million, 6 million or God knows how many millions of those illegal aliens who have presumably embedded themselves in communities around the United States. Most are most likely not a threat to national security, however, as the old joke about “How many morons does it take to screw in a light bulb?” asked- the question in this perilous era is “How many terrorists would it take to kill tens of thousands of innocent victims?” (We already know how much destruction 19 can do!)

I also want you to consider the point made by Ms Myrick about the probability that the government of Venezuela is issuing authentic passports and other identity documents to Iranian soldiers to disguise their true identities and nationalities. I am certain that the folks at the State Department are still happy to issue visas to citizens of Venezuela.

I can tell you with absolute certainty, based on my 30 years with the former INS that it is impossible to simply look at another human being and know what the citizenship of that person is. An Iranian who has spent several years in Venezuela and immersed himself (herself?) in the language and culture of that country would be easily able to pass himself off as a citizen of Venezuela.

Once such bogus Venezuelans enter the United States, with the lack of resources and competence of our “leaders” at DHS no one would even try to look for those make-believe Venezuelans as they embed themselves in communities around our country awaiting instructions to take action against us from within our country!

There are other countries in Latin America who also hate the United States and would love nothing better than to help some truly evil people to gain entry into our country. The president of Bolivia was a cocoa farmer and is an advocate for sending as much cocaine to the United States as possible. The “Tri-Border Region” of Brazil is known to have terrorist training camps for Hezbollah, Hamas and likely al-Qaeda.

Meanwhile when the leaders of Arizona passed an immigration law that essentially mirrored the federal immigration statutes that the administration is adamant about ignoring and not enforcing, the Department of Justice eliminated any possible doubts about the administration’s intentions to secure our nation’s borders and create and immigration system that has real integrity that protects our nation and our citizens while honoring the many millions of honest and law abiding immigrants who followed the letter of the law as well as the spirit of the law to legally immigrate to the United States to begin their lives anew here and, in so doing, built our nation.

Clearly the administration and the advocates for “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” want to make running our nation’s borders a prerequisite for becoming a United States citizen!

Clearly while the administration does not “get it,” Congresswoman Myrick most certainly does “gets it!

Here is a link to a video presentation to be found on Ms Myrick’s official website you may want to check out concerning the threats posed to our nation that she wrote about in her Washington Time article:
http://myrick.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=84&sectiontree=27,84&itemid=353

While we are on the topic of videos, on May 26th of this year, Television Station WSBTV ran a news report for which I was interviewed. The title of this news report was, “Border Investigation Gets Worldwide Response.

Here is the link to this startling news report that provides still more evidence of terrorists entering our country via the southern border:

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/23686786/detail.html

It is time for the politicians in Washington to live up to their oaths of office as well!

The administration and our elected representatives must take to heart, the statements made by the union leaders who represent the employes of Immigration and Custom Enforcement who gave the “leadership” of that beleaguered agency a “No confidence” vote recently and do whatever is necessary to address these massive deficiencies as quickly and effectively as possible. The security of our nation and the safety of our citizens must, without equivocation take priority over any political goals or agenda.

It is unacceptable that the citizens of this nation be alienated by their own government especially where border security and the enforcement and administration of our nation’s immigration laws are concerned!

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

November 2nd cannot come fast enough!

We the People, throughout this nation must seek opportunities to make it clear to our political “representatives” that we understand their game plan and won’t tolerate it!.

I believe our nation’s 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 and members of al-Qaeda!

We the People can add to the consternation of those politicians who are failing to live up to their oaths of office by contacting them and making it abundantly clear that election day is coming and they should think of election day as their personal “Day of Reckoning!”

Our government must live up to its obligation of protecting its own citizens and, indeed, all who are present in our country from the criminals and terrorists who would threaten our lives and the survival of our nation and our way of life. In the end, the government is actually those who are elected to act as our “leaders.” Those who fail to truly lead and look out for those they are supposed to represent, need to be sent packing this coming Election Day!

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 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 what I had to say, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

In just two months, each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. 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-

Today’s commentary will be short but not so sweet!

I have been reading interesting news reports and watching discussions on news broadcasts about how the Pew Hispanic Center have determined that the number of illegal aliens present in our country has declined during the past two years. I have provided you with the article that appeared in the Washington Times Wednesday, September 1st about this very issue.

I am frankly having a difficult time understanding how the Pew Hispanic Center came to their conclusion and, frankly, I am at a loss to understand how representatives of organizations have been quick to embrace the theory put forward by the Pew Center.

I have provided you with a link to “2009 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics” that is produced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). I urge you to check out the two charts I have provided you with below:
http://www.dhs.gov/files/statistics/immigration.shtm

You will notice that I have provided you first with the statistics of how many aliens secured lawful immigrant status in the United States from 2000 until 2009. You will see that in 2009 a total of 1,130, 818 aliens became lawful immigrants (were issued “green cards”). In the last ten years only in 2006 did we see a hire number of new lawful immigrants (1,266,129).

If the United States is no longer such a desirable place for the illegal aliens, why are the number of legal immigrants climbing?

Next I would suggest you check out the arrest statistics also taken from the DHS report. According to the DHS furnished statistics, the number of illegal aliens apprehended by special agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) totaled 21,877 for 2009 while in 2008 the number of such apprehensions was 33,573 and in 2007 a total of 53,562 illegal alien s were apprehended by special agents of ICE.

Detention and Removal Operations noted on the chart refer to illegal aliens who were identified as being incarcerated following their being convicted of committing felonies in the United States.

Border Patrol arrests trended lower from 2007 until 2009 but many factors come into play where those statistics are concerned.

The point is that I am not truly certain that there has been any reduction at all in the number of illegal aliens who are present in the United States.

Estimates as to what percentage of illegal aliens are apprehended by the Border Patrol vary so widely that it is impossible to correlate the number of illegal aliens who succeed in evading the Border Patrol as compared with how many are apprehended.

I also want you to take a long hard look at those statistics.

There are about 6,000 ICE special agents for the entire United States of America.

In 2009 those 6,000 special agents arrested a total of 21, 877 illegal aliens. This works out to an average of each agent arresting fewer than 4 illegal aliens for immigration law violations per year!!!

Doing a bit more computing, this means that the average ICE special agent arrested one illegal alien simply for violations of immigration laws every 3 months!

Yet the administration claims that enforcement is up?!

Border Patrol apprehensions are far greater than are the arrests made by ICE but here is something to consider- the Border Patrol takes credit for an arrest every time an illegal alien is arrested, even if the same alien is arrested multiple times. Illegal aliens who are willing to be arrested numerous times by the Border Patrol will ultimately succeed in getting past the Border Patrol- all that they need to do in order to succeed is to be able to ultimately make one more attempt at running the border than the number of times they are arrested before they ultimately succeed.

Once an alien gets past the Border Patrol and makes his way into the interior of the United States, there is scant likelihood that they will be apprehended and deported (removed) from the United States. In fact, the Amnesty program, under the aegis of “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” that is being hawked by the administration and members of Congress such as Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the other “usual suspects” would make running our nation’s borders a prerequisite for becoming a United States citizen!

It has been said that “Figures don’t lie but liars can figure!”

Here are the cold, hard numbers as provided by the folks at the Department of Homeland Surrender!

I guess we all understand why the special agents at DHS have given their “leaders” a unanimous vote of “No confidence!”

Considering those statistics along with so many other issues, it is not all that difficult to figure it out!

Clearly the will of the citizens of our nation is being blithely ignored by the administration. According to a Fox News report that aired this morning, the list of states that are now seeking to enact legislation that is similar to Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070 is growing, even among states whose governors are Democrats.

It is time for the politicians in Washington to live up to their oaths of office as well!

They must take to heart the statements made by the union leaders who represent the employes of Immigration and Custom Enforcement and do whatever is necessary to address these massive deficiencies as quickly and effectively as possible. The security of our nation and the safety of our citizens must, without equivocation take priority over any political goals or agenda.

It is unacceptable that the citizens of this nation be alienated by their own government especially where border security and the enforcement and administration of our nation’s immigration laws are concerned!

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

November 2nd cannot come fast enough!

We the People, throughout this nation must seek opportunities to make it clear to our political “representatives” that we understand their game plan and won’t tolerate it!.

I believe our nation’s 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 and members of al-Qaeda!

We the People can add to the consternation of those politicians who are failing to live up to their oaths of office by contacting them and making it abundantly clear that election day is coming and they should think of election day as their personal “Day of Reckoning!”

Our government must live up to its obligation of protecting its own citizens and, indeed, all who are present in our country from the criminals and terrorists who would threaten our lives and the survival of our nation and our way of life. In the end, the government is actually those who are elected to act as our “leaders.” Those who fail to truly lead and look out for those they are supposed to represent, need to be sent packing this coming Election Day!

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 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 what I had to say, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

In just two months, each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. 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-

Here is a news report that appeared in today’s edition of the Washington Times that I contributed to. Jerry Seper, who co-authored this excellent report with Matthew Cella is an experienced journalist who has devoted much of his efforts for many years, to covering the multitude of issues related to our nation’s continuing failures to secure our nation’s borders and create an immigration system that has real integrity contacted me several days ago and asked that I contribute my thoughts to the fact that the Bureau of Land Management, an arm of the federal government has now determined it is appropriate to post signs within a strip of land inside the United States that runs parallel to the border that is supposed to separate our nation from Mexico. A border, I might add, that Janet Napolitano, has stated was so secure that it would be appropriate for her dysfunctional agency to implement “Comprehensive Immigration Reform.” As I am sure you know, Ms Napolitano is the Secretary of a federal agency, the DHS that I had decided should be named the Department of Homeland Surrender.

Joining Ms Napolitano in this gross exaggeration about the security of our borders is Chuck Schumer, the senior senator from the State of New York and the chairman of the Senate subcommittee that has oversight authority for all matters dealing with immigration. Perhaps Mr. Schumer is having a bit of language problem as well. I think he has mistaken the word “Overlook” for “Oversight!”

I know that our nation’s educational system is failing all too many of its modern day students, I just did not realize how much Mr. Schumer’s education way back when he attended school was so deficient that he would confuse those two words!

As critical as I was of the previous administration for its multitude of failures to secure our nation’s borders and provide real integrity to the process by which aliens are granted visas and scrutinized in a reasonable manner to attempt to prevent the entry of aliens into our country whose presence in our country would represent a threat to national security or otherwise have negative impact on our nation and our citizens, the current administration, far and away raises incompetence to an entirely new level!

Additionally, while the previous administration did little, if anything to take on the issue of immigration benefit fraud, the current administration is apparently even less concerned with the utter lack of integrity by which USCIS, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services adjudicates applications for a wide variety of immigration benefits including the conferring of resident alien status and even United States citizenship upon aliens. This is especially disturbing when you realize that the terrorists who so savagely attacked our nation on September 11, 2001, nearly 9 years ago, easily gamed the immigration system in order to enter our country and then embed themselves within our country, easily able to hide in plain sight until they sprung their attacks against our nation and against thousands of their innocent victims.

What is even more disturbing is that in 1993 two previous terrorist attacks were also carried out by Radical Islamist terrorists who also easily entered our country and gamed the immigration system. In those attacks, more than 17 years ago, two CIA officers were slaughtered as they drove into the CIA Headquarters parking lot and three others were wounded by a Pakistani national by the name of Amir Kansi who succeeded in acquiring political asylum by lying on his application, thereby committing fraud.

Just one month later, in February of 1993, a massive bomb rocked the once-iconic feature of the lower Manhattan skyline, the World Trade Center complex, nearly toppling one of the 110 story tall tower. That attack, as you will recall, killed 6 innocent people, injured hundred or perhaps thousands and inflicted an estimated one half billion dollars in damages.

Here is a bit of a back story about the the attack on the World Trade Center.

In 1985 I approached my then Congressman, Chuck Schumer and told him that I had heard that he was one of the key architects of an amnesty proposal that would provide illegal alien agricultural workers in the United States with a pathway to lawful status. Our meeting was even briefer than I had expected. I was told that he would meet with me for 15 minutes. When I told him about my opposition to his proposed amnesty for farm workers- and, in fact, confused as to why he would be so concerned about farm workers because there was no farm, to my knowledge in the district he represented, he told me something to the effect that I did not know the “big picture!”

I told Mr. Schumer that I had tremendous concerns that such a sweeping amnesty program would be fraught with fraud and, I even recall telling him that my son at that time was one year old. I shared with him my belief that I expected that if his proposed amnesty program was enacted that if my son decided to follow in my footsteps when he became and adult, that the fraud investigations would probably guarantee my son job security two decades later!

It was at about that moment that he looked at his wristwatch and told me that his next appointment was waiting for him.

Our meeting, if I remember correctly, lasted little more than ten minutes- an appointment I had to wait weeks in order to have that brief meeting.

What is interesting is that one of the co-conspirators in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in 1993 was a man by the name of Mahmud Abouhalima, one of many of the beneficiaries of Mr. Schumer’s agricultural amnesty program that came to be known as “SAW” (Special Agricultural Worker) amnesty program that was a component of the massive amnesty program of 1986 under the aegis of IRCA, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

Mr. Abouhalima never worked on a farm and, in point of fact the only planting he ever did that I government became aware of was the bomb that was planted in the basement of the World Trade Center.

On September 1, 2006 I was invited to testify before the House Judiciary Committee at a field hearing in Dubuque, Iowa. The topic of the hearing was:

“IS THE REID-KENNEDY BILL A REPEAT OF THE FAILED AMNESTY OF 1986?”

As a part of my prepared testimony I made reference to Mahmud Abouhalima. Here is an excerpt from my testimony:

“A notable example of such a terrorist can be found in a review of the facts concerning Mahmud Abouhalima, a citizen of Egypt who entered the United States on a tourist visa, overstayed his authorized period of admission and then applied for amnesty under the agricultural worker provisions of IRCA. He succeeded in obtaining resident alien status through this process. During the 5 year period he drove a cab and had his license suspended numerous times for various violations of law and he ultimately demonstrated his appreciation for our Nation’s generosity by participating in the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 that left six people dead, hundreds of people injured and an estimated one-half billion dollars in damages inflicted on that iconic, ill-fated complex. America had opened his doors to him so that he might participate in the American dream and he turned that dream into our worst nightmare. The other terrorists who attacked our Nation on subsequent attacks, including the attacks of September 11, 2001, similarly exploited our generosity, seeing in our Nation’s kindness, weakness, gaming the immigration system to enter our country and then hide in plain sight among us.”

Here is a link to the transcript of that hearing in its entirety:
http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju29745.000/hju29745_0.htm

Albert Einstein who said that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result!

My dad taught me as a young boy that there were no mistakes in life, only lessons- provided that we learned from the things that went wrong. He went on to tell me that it was inexcusable to not learn from the things that went wrong, however!

You would think that Chuck Schumer would be the last person on this planet who would be the “point man” for an amnesty program considering the disastrous results from his program the last time! I wonder what Albert Einstein or, for that matter, my dad, would have to say about Schumer!

At least you know why I like to point out that before he was elected to the United States Senate, Chuck Schumer was my Congressman, but he was never my “Representative!”

The point is that our borders are not secure. The immigration “system” is a system by name only.

We know that when a hurricane makes land fall along beaches and coastline that often the storm causes massive erosion, effectively shrinking the coastline in the aftermath of the storm.

Apparently with the storms of violence in Mexico to be found in close proximity to our nation’s southern border, our sovereign borders are also eroding. How much further north would the administration be willing to, in effect, shift our southern border north?

The famed expression about “drawing a line in the sand” may keep our nation’s cartographers busy trying to figure out where the “No man’s land” ends and secure territory of our nation begins! I would remind you that according to the Secretary of Homeland Surrender that some 230 cities throughout our nation are now infested by members of the pernicious Mexican drug cartels. Will Ms Napolitano now recommend that governors and mayors around our country follow the federal government’s example and establish areas to be avoided by law abiding citizens to minimize the potential of being killed by foreign criminals plying their trades throughout out country?

It is time for the politicians in Washington to live up to their oaths of office as well!

They must take to heart the statements made by the union leaders who represent the employes of Immigration and Custom Enforcement and do whatever is necessary to address these massive deficiencies as quickly and effectively as possible. The security of our nation and the safety of our citizens must, without equivocation take priority over any political goals or agenda.

It is unacceptable that the citizens of this nation be alienated by their own government especially where border security and the enforcement and administration of our nation’s immigration laws are concerned!

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

November 2nd cannot come fast enough!

We the People, throughout this nation must seek opportunities to make it clear to our political “representatives” that we understand their game plan and won’t tolerate it!.

I believe our nation’s 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 and members of al-Qaeda!

We the People can add to the consternation of those politicians who are failing to live up to their oaths of office by contacting them and making it abundantly clear that election day is coming and they should think of election day as their personal “Day of Reckoning!”

Our government must live up to its obligation of protecting its own citizens and, indeed, all who are present in our country from the criminals and terrorists who would threaten our lives and the survival of our nation and our way of life. In the end, the government is actually those who are elected to act as our “leaders.” Those who fail to truly lead and look out for those they are supposed to represent, need to be sent packing this coming Election Day!

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 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 what I had to say, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

In just two months, each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. 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-

Earlier today I was sent an e-mail from one of the folks on my distribution list for my commentaries and my notices of upcoming appearances.

She enumerated a number of issues relating to the national security issues not being addressed by the current administration and at the end of her e-mail asked (rhetorically):

“When is Obama going to give them the key to the kingdom?”

I thought you might find my response to her e-mail to be of interest….

Hi: ****

I really hate to tell you this, but our government has provided and apparently will continue to provide terrorists and transnational gang members and assorted thugs the keys to our kingdom and in massive numbers!

This has been going on for decades! Both political parties bear responsibility!

Every alien who is permitted to enter our country on a “temporary” visa or under the auspices of the insane “Visa Waiver Program” has been provided with a key to the front door much the way that a hotel guest is provided with a key card that is valid for a certain period of time.

After your allotted time as a guest at a hotel expires, the key you were given by the front desk will no longer work. If you fail to remove your belongings by a mutually agreed upon time on the final day of your stay in the hotel, the management will enter what had been your room and remove your belongings. If management at the hotel determines you damaged any of the furnishings of the hotel or stole anything, legal action will, most likely, be taken to recoup the damages.

Aliens, on the other hand, who fail to depart the United States within the previously agreed upon time period have virtually nothing to fear! The actual number of aliens who violate the terms of their admission into the United States is unknown. The government, notorious for underestimating such numbers of deportable (removable) aliens estimate that there are roughly five million such “visa violators.” Violations of terms of admission by nonimmigrant aliens take a number of forms. Some temporary visitors simply remain in the United States beyond the date they were authorized to remain in the United States. Others seek employment for which they are not authorized while other aliens who were provided with temporary work visas fail to report for work or quit and fail to leave the United States. Foreign students may fail to attend the schools for which they were issued visas to attend. Still other aliens commit crimes and are convicted for violating various laws.

It is estimated that there are fewer than 300 special agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) seeking to locate those estimated 5 million visa violators!

On May 11, 2006 I testified before the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on International Relations on the topic:
“VISA OVERSTAYS: CAN WE BAR THE TERRORIST DOOR?”

You can read the transcript of that hearing at:

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa27480.000/hfa27480_0f.htm

The visa process is clearly fatally flawed but what bewilders me even more is that our nation continually expands the extremely dangerous Visa Waiver Program to the point where the citizens of Greece just became eligible to enter our country without first applying for and receiving a visa! Greece is the 36th such country on that list!

You can review the State Department’s website for information about this wrong headed and, indeed, treacherous Visa Waiver Program at:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html

Some time ago I compiled a list of the ways in which the visa process can be helpful to law enforcement and bolster our nation’s efforts to prevent the entry of aliens whose presence on our country may prove harmful to our nation and our citizens.

Here is the list of the 6 benefits that the visa requirement provides to national security:

1. By requiring visas of aliens who seek to enter the United States, this process helps to screen potential passengers on airliners that are destined to the United States. Richard Reid, the so-called “Shoe Bomber” was able to board an airliner to come to the United States although he had no intentions of entering the United States, his apparent goal was to blow up the airliner and its many passengers somewhere over the depths of the Atlantic Ocean by detonating explosives he had concealed in his shoes. Because he is a subject of Great Britain, a country that participates in the Visa Waiver Program, Reid did not obtain a visa before he boarded that airliner.
2. The CBP inspectors are supposed to make a decision in one minute or less as to the admissibility of an alien seeking to enter the United States. The visa requirement helps them to do a more effective job. Their’s is a tough job I can certainly relate to, I began my career at the former INS as an immigration inspector at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and worked there for 4 years before I became a special agent.
3. The application for a nonimmigrant visa contains roughly 40 questions that could provide invaluable information to law enforcement officials should that alien become the target of a criminal or terrorist investigation. The information could provide intelligence as well as investigative leads. You can check out the application for a nonimmigrant (tourist) visa by clicking on this link:

https://evisaforms.state.gov/ds156.asp

4. If an alien applicant lies on the application for a visa that lie is called “visa fraud.” The maximum penalty for visa fraud starts out at 10 years in jail for those who commit this crime simply in order to come to the United States, ostensibly to seek unlawful employment or other such purpose. The penalty increases to 15 years in jail for those aliens who obtain a visa to commit a felony. For aliens who engage in visa fraud to traffic in narcotics or commit another narcotics-related crime, the maximum jail sentence that can be imposes rises to 20 years. Finally, when an alien can be proven to have engaged in visa fraud in furtherance of terrorism, the maximum penalty climbs to 25 years in prison. It is important to note that while it may be difficult to prove that an individual is a terrorist, it is usually relatively simple to prove that the alien has committed visa fraud when there is fraud involved in the visa application. Indeed, terror suspects are often charged with visa fraud.
5. The charge of visa fraud can also be extremely helpful to law enforcement authorities who want to take a bad guy off the street without tipping their hand to the other members of a criminal conspiracy or terrorism conspiracy that the individual arrested was being arrested for his involvement in terrorism or a criminal organization. You can arrest the alien who commits visa fraud for that violation of law and not for other charges that might make it clear that the investigation underway is targeting a criminal or terrorist organization.
6. Even when an alien applies for a visa and his application is denied, the application he filed remains available for law enforcement and intelligence personnel to review to seek to glean intelligence from that application.

Under the insane Visa Waiver Program, none of the above-noted benefits to national security apply!

Other aliens are provided with a permanent key to the front door, these are the lawfully admitted immigrants.

The “Gold Key” to the front door is United States citizenship.

As United States citizens, these aliens have all of the rights and privileges that native-born United States citizens have with one exception- they cannot hold the positions of President or Vice President of the United States. However, they are legally eligible to hold any other elected or military position in our country. The governor of California, the state with the greatest number of residents is a naturalized citizen.

If you review my website and check out how many commentaries I have written about visa fraud and/or immigration benefit fraud, you know that this topic has been of tremendous concern to me ever since I began working for the former INS in 1971!

You may also be interested to know that when I first testified before a Congressional hearing, back on May 20,1997 I did so for the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims. The topic of that hearing was:

“Oversight hearing regarding visa fraud and immigration benefits application fraud”

Here is the link to the transcript of that hearing in its entirety:

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju44195.000/hju44195_0f.htm

The predication for that hearing were the two terrorist attacks conducted inside the United States in 1993. This hearing was, in large measure called because the Terrorists who participated in two terrorist attacks in 1993- first at the CIA in January of that year and then at the World Trade Center the following month, were all foreign nationals (aliens) who had gamed the visa and/or the immigration benefits programs in order to enter the United States and embed themselves in our country in order to be able to carry out those attacks.

Ask the current crop of politicians who favor Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the ever expanding Visa Waiver Program if they give a damn about the citizens they were elected to represent!

Ask the current crop of politicians who will be all but begging for your vote come November if they believe that the State Department has been effectively managing the program by which visas are issued when you consider how many aliens how violate our immigration laws were able to acquire visas as they made preparations to enter our country even though they were apparently intent on remaining in our country long after their authorized period of admission expired? While you are at it, perhaps you should ask them what plans they have to address this lunacy.

Clearly the way that visas are issued does little to prevent the entry of aliens into our country who easily game the visa process in order to enter our country and violate our laws- even in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. (Remember, each and every one of the 19 terrorists who attacked our nation on that horrific day had succeeded in obtaining a visa and getting through the inspections process.)

I hate to be repetitive, but I think it is worth remembering how our nation’s leaders voiced outrage in March of 2002 that two of the dead terrorists, could have been sent letters of approval from the former INS precisely 6 months after those attacks authorizing them to extend their stay in the United States and change immigration status so that they could attend flight schools! The House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims convened a hearing into that fiasco on March 19, 2002. I was invited to appear before that hearing and I gladly accepted that invitation offered to me by the then Ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee, Sheila Jackson Lee.

Here is the link to the C-SPAN video of the Congressional hearing conducted by the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims, at which I testified on March 19, 2002 as you watch this video I want you to consider how much has not changed in the more than 8 years since the attacks of September 11, 2001:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/165862

Topic for the hearing:

“INS’S MARCH 2002 NOTIFICATION OF APPROVAL OF CHANGE OF STATUS FOR PILOT TRAINING FOR TERRORIST HIJACKERS MOHAMMED ATTA AND MARWAN AL-SHEHHI”

Here is the link to the transcript of the hearing in its entirety

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju78298.000/hju78298_0f.htm

The video runs about 2 hours and 30 minutes. I would urge you to watch it and, as you watch the hearing, I want you to ask yourself a simple question, “What has really changed?”

What has changed is that the citizens of our nation, in the name of national security have found their expectations of privacy and freedom have been continually eroding even as our nation’s leaders expand the Visa Waiver Program and fail to secure our borders, fail to address the widespread ineptitude and incompetence in the processes by which applications for visas and immigration benefits are adjudicated.

Of additional great concern is the fact that the immigration laws remain all but unenforced, encouraging still more illegal aliens to run our nation’s borders or game the visa program and, once they succeed in entering our country, they find it a simple matter to embed themselves in communities across our nation from border to border and coast to coast.

When the state of Arizona recently enacted its new immigration law, SB 1070 the United States Department of Justice responded more quickly then I believe we have seen in years- they responded by filing a lawsuit seeking to block Arizona from implementing that new law that largely parallels the federal statutes and just a few days ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a report to the United Nations, undermining our nation’s sovereignty, and claiming that the United States government was seeking to improve “Human Rights” inside the United States by attempting to make certain that the officials of Arizona do not enforce immigration laws!

Meanwhile, in the name of “National Security” the citizens of our nation are experiencing a continual reduction in our expectations of privacy and freedom!

At the same time the administration is also reportedly reviewing thousands of immigration cases involving aliens whose removal from the United States was being sought. According to published reports, the government will seek to end efforts to deport (remove) illegal aliens from the United States even if they have criminal convictions- provided that in the opinion of the administration the crimes for which they were convicted are “minor!”

I would love to know what crimes are on that list!

Finally, the administration and “leaders” in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate are proceeding with plans to implement “Comprehensive Immigration Reform.” I have come to refer to this legislative detritus as the “Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act!”

Under Comprehensive Immigration Reform, tens of millions of illegal aliens whose true identities, nationalities, backgrounds and potential affiliation with criminal or terrorist organizations would be unknown and unknowable. Because most illegal aliens use multiple false identities, it would be difficult to determine how long these illegal aliens have even been present in the United States (that is what the term “undocumented” means!)

Yet Secretary of DHS, the Department of Homeland Surrender, Senator Chuck Schumer, chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee and all of the other “usual suspects” insist that even with the nearly daily news reports of ever escalating violence in Mexico that our borders have never been more secure and so it is time for the ultimate betrayal- the implementation of Comprehensive Immigration Reform!

Going back to the question that prompted my commentary today- the federal government’s locksmiths are clearly working overtime- cranking out shiny new keys for millions of folks from all over our planet, who may or may not leave when they are supposed or may or may not plan to follow our laws and hence, may or may not prove to be a threat to the security of our nation and the safety of our citizens!

It is time for the politicians in Washington to live up to their oaths of office as well!

They must take to heart the statements made by the union leaders who represent the employes of Immigration and Custom Enforcement and do whatever is necessary to address these massive deficiencies as quickly and effectively as possible. The security of our nation and the safety of our citizens must, without equivocation take priority over any political goals or agenda.

It is unacceptable that the citizens of this nation be alienated by their own government especially where border security and the enforcement and administration of our nation’s immigration laws are concerned!

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

November 2nd cannot come fast enough!

We the People, throughout this nation must seek opportunities to make it clear to our political “representatives” that we understand their game plan and won’t tolerate it!.

I believe our nation’s 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 and members of al-Qaeda!

We the People can add to the consternation of those politicians who are failing to live up to their oaths of office by contacting them and making it abundantly clear that election day is coming and they should think of election day as their personal “Day of Reckoning!”

Our government must live up to its obligation of protecting its own citizens and, indeed, all who are present in our country from the criminals and terrorists who would threaten our lives and the survival of our nation and our way of life. In the end, the government is actually those who are elected to act as our “leaders.” Those who fail to truly lead and look out for those they are supposed to represent, need to be sent packing this coming Election Day!

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 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 what I had to say, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

In just two months, each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. 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-

This past weekend I was on The Fox News Network’s, Fox & Friends, to talk about how the administration, via Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reported to the United Nations that the United States was advancing the cause of “Human Rights” by blocking the state of Arizona from enforcing immigration laws. I also discussed the way that smugglers are using boats to smuggle aliens into the United States, thereby circumventing the Border Patrol on the land border that is supposed to separate the United States from Mexico.

Now we have an article that appeared in yesterday’s (Monday’s) edition of the Washington Post that reports on a new deadly and truly insidious tactic employed by narcotics smugglers, that of using counterfeit police uniforms and vehicles that are disguised to appear as bona fide police cars.

I have provided you with the first few sentences of the news report that appeared in the Washington Post below. You can (and should) read that report in its entirety by clicking on the link I have provided.

This is the stuff of nightmares!

The news article begins by talking about how a a Border Patrol agent in Zapata, Texas encountered a smuggler who was dressed as a deputy and drove what appeared to be a genuine police vehicle. As it turned out, the vehicle was as phony as the uniform the “deputy” was wearing. The attempt was to get the smuggler and his load of marijuana past the Border Patrol. Fortunately the smuggler of the vehicle did not attempt to do what is now becoming a common practice in Mexico- using fake police cars and counterfeit uniforms to lull law enforcement officers into a false sense of security and then, when the time is right, gun down the real law enforcement officers and, as the article reported, kill a candidate for political office.

They have also taken to using other disguises such as Fed-Ex delivery vans and personnel, school buses and other seemingly innocuous disguises.

Chameleons, as I have often noted, use changes in coloration as a way to “hide in plain sight” among their intended victims. For humans, false identity documents can serve the same purpose. (The 19 terrorists who attacked our nation on September 11, 2001 used more than 300 false names or variations of false names in order to embed themselves.) This is why I have come to refer to “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” as the “Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act.” (Senator Jeff Sessions, in fact, quoted my Op-Ed article in the Washington Times on three separate occasions during the floor debates more than 3 years ago when Chuck Schumer and Ted Kennedy attempted to ram that legislative nightmare down our throats.)

Here is the Op-Ed I wrote back then:

Now the smugglers and drug cartels are taking to employing an even more horrific tactic! Imagine if they take it to the next level inside the United States and carry out “hits” inside the United States using these tactics!

Yet the administration has the chutzpah to go to the United Nations claiming that by blocking Arizona from enforcing immigration laws the United States is protecting “Human Rights?” How about the “Human Rights” of the 72 Mexican who were slaughtered?!

How about the fact that in Phoenix, Arizona there is an average of one kidnapping and/or home invasion being committed each and every day by thugs, often with connections to the Mexican cartels?

What about the economic impact of massive numbers of illegal aliens who not only take jobs Americans would be happy to do, especially as the unemployment rate continues to climb, but also because foreign workers, both legally and illegally present in our country generally attempt to send as much of the money they earn back to their families in their home countries, draining tens of billions of dollars from the United States economy? These tens of billions of dollars are wages that are not earned by American citizens or lawful immigrants. The money being sent out of our country is money that is not spent in the United States or invested in the United States.

Janet Napolitano, the secretary of DHS, the Department of Homeland Surrender has openly noted that at least 230 cities in the United States, from border to border and coast to coast have been infested by members of the incredibly violent Mexican drug cartels yet the administration is reportedly mounting a state by state review of deportation (removal) proceedings involving tens of thousands of aliens who do not have “serious” criminal convictions with the goal of dismissing the removal proceedings against them!

What will our nation do if members of the pernicious Mexican drug cartels operating throughout our nation, or if other transnational thugs conduct similar operations in America’s communities as we are seeing in Mexico where people can no longer trust police officers because the bad guys will take to the tactic of impersonating police officers in furtherance of their criminal goals including murdering political candidates as they are now doing inside Mexico?

Meanwhile, apparently ignoring the concerns I noted above, the administration and for such Congressional “leaders” as Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reed and all of the other “usual suspects” it would appear that by attempting, in one way or another, to secure United States citizenship for illegal aliens that a pre-requisite for being granted United States citizenship is for the alien in question to run our nation’s borders and violate other ancillary laws in conjunction with their unlawful entry into our country! (To think that when I began working for the former INS an alien seeking to naturalize and become a citizen of our nation had to provide two witnesses who would attest, under oath to the “Good Moral Character” of the alien applying for citizenship! Furthermore, back then It wasn’t enough that an alien did not have convictions for crimes, INS agents would actually hit the street and conduct Good Moral Character (GMC) investigations of aliens applying for citizenship, interviewing neighbors and folks who worked with the alien who applied for United States citizenship!

It is worth remembering that under the administration of President Bill Clinton, a program known as “Citizenship USA” also known as “CUSA” was implemented that ostensibly was intended to clear up the backlog of applications for Untied States citizenship at immigration district offices around the United States. Under the aegis of this insane program, devised, in large measure by then Immigration Commissioner Doris Meissner, more than one million aliens were swiftly naturalized and it was ultimately determined that fingerprint checks had not been completed on all of them and that a significant number of these newly minted citizens (voters) were actually ineligible to become citizens!

You can see the report of the investigation into CUSA conducted by the Officer of the Inspector General here:
www.justice.gov/oig/special/0007/cusaimp.pdf

On August 3rd I was interviewed briefly by Neil Cavuto, on his his Fox News program, “Your World With Neil Cavuto,” to discuss the fact that a nun had been killed and two other nuns had been injured by an illegal alien who had been arrested on previous occasions and charged with drunk driving and was then released on his own recognizance pending the outcome of the deportation (removal) proceedings that had been initiated previously.

Here is a link to the video of my appearance on Neil’s show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPoIefO5mHk&feature=fvwk

During my brief segment on Neil’s program he asked me, “What does it take for an alien to be kicked out of our country?”

I suggested to Neil, that he ask Janet Napolitano!

It is time for the politicians in Washington to live up to their oaths of office as well!

They must take to heart the statements made by the union leaders who represent the employes of Immigration and Custom Enforcement and do whatever is necessary to address these massive deficiencies as quickly and effectively as possible. The security of our nation and the safety of our citizens must, without equivocation take priority over any political goals or agenda.

It is unacceptable that the citizens of this nation be alienated by their own government especially where border security and the enforcement and administration of our nation’s immigration laws are concerned!

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

November 2nd cannot come fast enough!

We the People, throughout this nation must seek opportunities to make it clear to our political “representatives” that we understand their game plan and won’t tolerate it!.

I believe our nation’s 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 and members of al-Qaeda!

We the People can add to the consternation of those politicians who are failing to live up to their oaths of office by contacting them and making it abundantly clear that election day is coming and they should think of election day as their personal “Day of Reckoning!”

Our government must live up to its obligation of protecting its own citizens and, indeed, all who are present in our country from the criminals and terrorists who would threaten our lives and the survival of our nation and our way of life. In the end, the government is actually those who are elected to act as our “leaders.” Those who fail to truly lead and look out for those they are supposed to represent, need to be sent packing this coming Election Day!

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 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 what I had to say, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

In just two months, each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. 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-

As you probably know, I was a guest on Fox & Friends earlier today to discuss two immigration stories that are in the news.

The first story deals with the fact that even as the administration is sending National Guard troops to the border that is supposed to separate the United States from Mexico that alien smugglers are taking to the tactic of smuggling aliens from Mexico into California by boats.

The second story deals with how the State Department, led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a report to the United Nations making the outrageous assertion that the United States was attempting to protect human rights by suing the State of Arizona in an effort to prevent the law enforcement officials of Arizona from enforcing immigration laws!

If you missed my appearance on Fox & Friends this morning, you can watch my segment here:

It is time for the politicians in Washington to live up to their oaths of office as well!

They must take to heart the statements made by the union leaders who represent the employes of Immigration and Custom Enforcement and do whatever is necessary to address these massive deficiencies as quickly and effectively as possible. The security of our nation and the safety of our citizens must, without equivocation take priority over any political goals or agenda.

It is unacceptable that the citizens of this nation be alienated by their own government especially where border security and the enforcement and administration of our nation’s immigration laws are concerned!

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

November 2nd cannot come fast enough!

We the People, throughout this nation must seek opportunities to make it clear to our political “representatives” that we understand their game plan and won’t tolerate it!.

I believe our nation’s 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 and members of al-Qaeda!

We the People can add to the consternation of those politicians who are failing to live up to their oaths of office by contacting them and making it abundantly clear that election day is coming and they should think of election day as their personal “Day of Reckoning!”

Our government must live up to its obligation of protecting its own citizens and, indeed, all who are present in our country from the criminals and terrorists who would threaten our lives and the survival of our nation and our way of life. In the end, the government is actually those who are elected to act as our “leaders.” Those who fail to truly lead and look out for those they are supposed to represent, need to be sent packing this coming Election Day!

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 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 what I had to say, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

In just two months, each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. 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-

On August 3rd I was interviewed briefly by Neil Cavuto, on his his Fox News program, “Your World With Neil Cavuto,” to discuss the fact that a nun had been killed and two other nuns had been injured by an illegal alien who had been arrested on previous occasions and charged with drunk driving and was then released on his own recognizance pending the outcome of the deportation (removal) proceedings that had been initiated previously.

Here is a link to the video of my appearance on Neil’s show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPoIefO5mHk&feature=fvwk

The day before I appeared on Neil’s program the Washington Times published a news article that provided details about this maddening case. I have attached the news report, in its entirety, beneath my commentary.

I suggest you consider this passage from that news article I have attached below that Washington Times article that was published on August 2nd:

In a June 30 memo, John T. Morton, assistant secretary of homeland security for ICE, said agents should focus their capture and deportation efforts on illegal immigrants who were suspected of terrorism, had been convicted of violent crimes or were repeat offenders, gang members or “aliens who otherwise pose a serious risk to public safety.” He did not define what rose to the level of serious risk.

I want you to take a moment to reflect on that memo.

Anyone with an ounce of intelligence has to come to the conclusion that anyone who would drive a vehicle while drunk is a threat to the safety of the community in which he (she) is operating that motor vehicle. That is the reason that driving while Under the Influence (of alcohol or drugs) is illegal.

Dead is dead.

Sister Denise Mosier would not and could not have been any deader (sic) if she had been killed by a terrorist!

Furthermore, while we are on the topic of illegal, Carlos A. Martinelly-Montano, the alien who drove drunk and killed a nun and injured two others was also illegally present in the United States. His illegal presence in our country was already known to ICE. He had been, according to the article, previously arrested on two other occasions and charged with drunk driving.

These facts beg the question, why did he have a driver’s license? (Presuming he had one- since there was no mention of his being charged with driving without a license.)

As you will also note during my interview with Neil Cavuto, Neil asked the bottom line question, “What does it take to get kicked out of the United States?”

When I began my career at the INS as a special agent, any illegal alien we encountered was “fair game.” Back then, even though the old INS always lacked the resources, no illegal alien could expect to get a pass if he was illegally present in the United States. Today the administration is claiming to be reviewing efforts to order illegal aliens removed from our nation on a case by case basis, refusing to remove illegal aliens unless they are convicted of serious crimes.

The program that has been called “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” would actually make unlawful entry into our country a prerequisite for being granted lawful immigration status and ultimately United States citizenship!

The immigration laws of our nation, just as is the case where immigration laws of other nations are concerned, is to prevent the entry of aliens whose presence in the country they seek to enter would be harmful to that nation or the citizens of that nation. Failing to prevent the entry of those aliens whose presence represents a violation of law, the next order of business, you would think, would be to identify illegal aliens and seek their removal.

This is precisely what the officials of the State of Arizona are attempting to do and we all know how warmly that offer was received by the federal government!

Rather than chastising a true political leader- Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and members of her state’s legislature, the President of the United States needs to take his oath of office serious and secure our nation’s borders and do whatever is necessary to make certain that there is real integrity within the immigration system where immigration benefits and the enforcement of the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States are concerned!

It is time for the politicians in Washington to live up to their oaths of office as well!

They must take to heart the statements made by the union leaders who represent the employes of Immigration and Custom Enforcement and do whatever is necessary to address these massive deficiencies as quickly and effectively as possible. The security of our nation and the safety of our citizens must, without equivocation take priority over any political goals or agenda.

It is unacceptable that the citizens of this nation be alienated by their own government especially where border security and the enforcement and administration of our nation’s immigration laws are concerned!

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

November 2nd cannot come fast enough!

We the People, throughout this nation must seek opportunities to make it clear to our political “representatives” that we understand their game plan and won’t tolerate it!.

I believe our nation’s 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 and members of al-Qaeda!

If reading this makes it difficult for you to sleep now- perhaps you could do something worthwhile- perhaps you might spend a couple of your sleepless hours writing letters to your elected representatives this evening and remind them that Election Day is just two months away!

We the People can add to the consternation of these politicians who are failing to live up to their oaths of office by contacting them and making it abundantly clear that election day is coming and they should think of election day as their personal “Day of Reckoning!”

Our government must live up to its obligation of protecting its own citizens and, indeed, all who are present in our country from the criminals and terrorists who would threaten our lives and the survival of our nation and our way of life. In the end, the government is actually those who are elected to act as our “leaders.” Those who fail to truly lead and look out for those they are supposed to represent, need to be sent packing this coming Election Day!

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. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

In just two months, each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. 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-

As you probably know at the end of July I traveled to Arizona to participate in a rally and to address a seminar at an event that was referred to as the Immigration Policy Summit. Part of the reason for my having been invited to participate in the events on that weekend were the direct result of my having provided the law firm that was retained by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer with a declaration in support of Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070 to help defend her state against the lawsuit filed by the United States Department of Justice seeking to block the implementation of that law.

When I arrived in Phoenix I immediately went to the studios of the Legal Broadcast Network to tape an interview with Scott Drake to discuss immigration. My interview was divided into 4 sections and I have provided you with links to those segments of my interview below.

I encourage you to not only watch those videos but, if you find them helpful, pass them along so that we can create a “bucket brigade of truth.”

Thank you.

-michael cutler-

Earlier today I appeared on the local Fox News program in New York City, Good Day New York to debate the construction of the mosque at Ground Zero.

For those of you who were not able to see the program, here is a link to the segment in which I appeared:

-michael cutler

Here we go again! Yet another component of the immigration “system” that does not work and will not be made to work even when nothing less than the security of our nation and the safety of our citizens hang in the balance!

Here I have provided you with an article [click here] that appears in today’s, edition of the Washington Times, the 24th of August, 2010, the headline for said article making the point as succinctly as possible, “U.S. visa violators unlikely to be fingered- Biometric exit loses appeal.” The journalist who wrote this excellent article is Shaun Waterman, a reporter I hae known for some time who, as you will see in reading his report, does a thorough and accurate job of reporting the essential facts. This is especially important when the report concerns national security.

A couple of days ago I wrote a commentary I called, “Every Border is a Border State.” I made it clear in that article, as I have in in ever so many previous commentaries and in testimony I have provided before Congressional hearings, that any state that shares its borders with either Mexico or Canada or has an international airport or a seaport must be thought of as being “border states.” The point is that any state that provides aliens with access to our nation is a border state.

Furthermore, it has been estimated that some 40% of the illegal aliens believed to be present in the United States are believed to have been admitted into our country through the inspections process and then, in one way or another, violated the terms of their admission into the United States. This includes aliens who remained in the United States after their authorized period of admission expired. It includes aliens who were admitted to attend schools or work in temporary positions and failed to show up for school or for their jobs. Other aliens who were admitted into our country were not supposed to seek gainful employment but did so anyway, also rendering them deportable (removable). Finally, aliens who committed crimes for which they were convicted also became deportable (removable) upon being convicted of those crimes.

When I participate in debates on college campuses, on radio or television programs or other public venues, I often hear the opponents of effective immigration law enforcement, the advocates for open borders and “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” justify their positions by saying that the 19 terrorists who so savagely attacked our nation and slaughtered so many innocent human beings on September 11, 2001 had all legally entered our country. They often make the false claim that these aliens were not illegal aliens. The point they conveniently forget is that each of the terrorists committed visa fraud and lied to the Immigration Inspectors when they were “legally” present in the United States. Had the truth about those sociopathic thugs been known, they would never have been provided with visas and they certainly would never have been admitted into the United States by the inspectors..

We also know that a number of those terrorists and still other terrorists who entered our nation over the years had violated the terms of their admission into our country and were subject to removal if the agents who were charged with enforcing our nation’s immigration laws had found and arrested them.

The two key components to law enforcement is to identify those who violate laws and to then be in the position to have the resources to locate and apprehend them and see to it that the appropriate actions are taken.

The subject of the newspaper report I have provided today is the abject opposition that the leadership in our government has to effectively identifying aliens who manage to enter our country and then violate the terms of their admission. If we fail to identify those who violate the law, then nothing further can or will be done to see to it that appropriate action is taken.

There is a famous question that asks, “If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound if there is no one there to hear it?”

I would suggest you consider a slightly different version of that question, “If a tree falls in a forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it matter if it does make a sound?”

Our government’s “leaders” now apparently believe that “Don’t ask – don’t know’” is the way of dealing with illegal aliens whose intentions and actions, may ultimately result in terrorists entering our nation and embedding themselves within communities around our nation even as the citizens of our nation are experiencing a continual reduction in the expectations of freedom and privacy we used to consider our birthright, in the name of national security.

Lest you think that I am overreacting to the apparent efforts aimed at further watering down any efforts to make certain that the immigration system has real integrity, you need to consider the following:

There is a non-partisan investigative agency that works at the behest of Congress to provide essential research to provide the information needed by our leaders in Congress to enable them to make proper decisions. This little-known agency is the Congressional Research Service. I have provided you, below, with a link to a report prepared by that agency that was prepared on February 7. 2005 and addressed the issue of border security and the essential nature of biometric identifiers as determined by the 9/11 Commission. I have also provided you with the summary of that report as well as a segment of its introduction. I took the liberty of high-lighting a particularly important sentence that appeared in that report. Please take the time to review the report in its entirety:

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/rs21916.pdf

Order Code RS21916 Updated February 7, 2005

CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web

Biometric Identifiers and Border Security: 9/11 Commission Recommendations and Related Issues
Daniel Morgan and William Krouse Resources, Science, and Industry Division and Domestic Social Policy Division

Summary

In its final report, the 9/11 Commission concluded that funding and completing a “biometric entry-exit screening system” for travelers to and from the United States is essential to our national security. The commission noted that the United States has built the first phase of a biometric screening system known as US-VISIT, and recommended that the “patchwork” of other border screening systems be consolidated with US-VISIT to serve as the basis for a single system to streamline border inspections. This report provides an overview of biometric technologies and the major U.S. biometric border screening systems, including US-VISIT, and discusses issues such as cost, performance, and user acceptance. Based in part upon the commission’s recommendations, Congress included biometric provisions related to entry/exit control in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-458). This topic will probably continue to be of interest to the 109th Congress. This report will be updated as needed.

Introduction

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, commonly known as the 9/11 Commission, found that “constraining terrorist travel should become a vital part of counterterrorism strategy.” Noting that “false identities are used by terrorists to avoid being detected on a watchlist” and that “biometric identifiers make such evasions far more difficult,” the commission recommended that
The Department of Homeland Security, properly supported by the Congress, should complete, as quickly as possible, a biometric entry-exit screening system, including a single system for speeding qualified travelers.

The commission identified the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program (US-VISIT) as the first phase of such a program, and recommended that this system be fully integrated with other border screening systems. It further recommended that biometric passports (or other secure identity verification) should be required of all travelers entering the United States, including U.S. citizens.

Additionally, as you probably already know, on May 11, 2006 I testified before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House or Representatives’ Committee on International Relations on the topic:

“VISA OVERSTAYS:
CAN WE BAR THE TERRORIST DOOR?”

Here is the transcript of that hearing in its entirety:

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa27480.000/hfa27480_0f.htm

As I noted in my commentary a couple of days ago, I was recently interviewed by Casey Wian, a CNN journalist who has been covering the immigration issue for many years. Casey has interviewed me a number of times over the past several years so that I could provide my perspectives on various aspects of the immigration crisis confronting our nation. Here is the link to video of that news report that aired this past Memorial Day weekend in which I briefly appear:

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/05/31/am.wian.border.patrol.cnn?iref=allsearch

The May 10th edition of “The Arizona Republic” carried an article for which I was interviewed by Daniel Gonzalez, the reporter who wrote the article entitled, U.S. not cracking down on immigrants with expired visas.”

Here is the link to that newspaper report:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/05/10/20100510illegal-immigrants-overstay.html#ixzz0ndkoS9wZ

The newspaper report I have provided you today discusses the clearly flawed efforts to identification and also make it clear that even if the leadership at the Department of Homeland Surrender were to find out about those aliens who violated the terms of their admission, there are fewer than 300 Special Agents (one report pegged the number at just 272) who are charged with seeking to locate and apprehend the millions of illegal aliens who were admitted via the inspections process, including aliens from so-called “Special Interest” countries- countries identified with terrorism who have apparently failed to depart from our nation as required or otherwise live up to the terms of their admission.

These aliens are currently living in communities all over the United States, hiding in “plain sight” or, in the parlance of the 9/11 Commission they have embedded themselves in our nation.

When you consider what just 19 terrorists did on September 11, 2001 and you realize that the estimated number of visa violator runs into the millions, how well will this enable you to sleep tonight?

What, if anything, are our leaders in our government thinking if they somehow think that the issue of visa violators does require serious measures even thought the 9/11 Commission made its concerns about this aspect of potential serious threat to national security clearly known? The terrorist attacks of September 11 took place nearly 9 years ago. The CRS (Congressional Research Service) report was issued more than 5 years ago. Yet not only is the program strongly recommended by the 9/11 Commission not yet implemented, it would appear that it will never be implemented!

When our nation was attacked on December 7, 1941 in just about 44 months, (less than 4 years- for any of our “leaders” who may read this commentary) our nation, working in close cooperation with our allies constructed fleets of aircraft that had never previously existed, we built fleets of naval vessels that had never previously existed, we built radar, weapons system and other essential munitions with brand new technology and even nuclear weapons which had never previously existed.

Today, while Fed-Ex, UPS and other freight forwarders are able to track millions of packages each and every day as a matter of routine, our wondrous Department of Homeland Surrender (DHS) is unable to track the comings and goings of foreign nationals in our country even though our nation’s survival and the lives of our citizens may ultimately depend on precisely this capability!

If ever there was any doubt about the priorities of the administration or our nation’s leaders, I want you to give some thought to the lawsuit filed by the United States Department of Justice against Governor Jan Brewer and her state for daring to take our nation’s immigration laws seriously! Her state is the “poster child” for violence perpetrated by those who violate our nation’s borders and laws, carrying an average of a kidnapping and/or home invasion each and every day in just one city in that beleaguered state- Phoenix.

Yet the Attorney General saw fit to sue the state of Arizona for trying to combat drug related violence which, it should be noted, most often focused on the immigrants of that state, while telling states and cities that practice “sanctuary” policies of utterly ignoring immigration laws that are supposed to protect our nation and our citizens from the transnational criminal and terrorist organizations that the federal government will not seek any action against them for ignoring these important laws that, when properly enforced, can be an extremely effective tool to provide national security and community safety!

Politicians who claim they are attempting to secure our nation by focusing on the border and ignoring all of the other critically important components of what should be a unified system are either liars or fools! In either event they do not belong in charge of anything!

Ignoring the various components of what should be a coordinated program of the enforcement of the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States including the need to make serious efforts to combat immigration fraud, will doom any efforts to protect our nation to fail. I fear that this failure will lead to extreme carnage at the hands of terrorists and drug traffickers such as we are witnessing just south of El Paso, Texas in Juarez, Mexico or at the hands of terrorists that would, God forbid, greatly eclipse the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Ignoring the interior enforcement missions is comparable to attempting to play baseball and not permit your outfielders take up their defensive positions when the opposing team is at bat. Any opposing player who could hit the ball over the infielders’ heads would get an automatic “in the park” home run!

Where national security and the lives of our citizens are concerned however, this is anything but a game!

It is time for the politicians in Washington to live up to their oaths of office as well!

They must take to heart the statements made by the union leaders who represent the employes of Immigration and Custom Enforcement and do whatever is necessary to address these massive deficiencies as quickly and effectively as possible. The security of our nation and the safety of our citizens must, without equivocation take priority over any political goals or agenda.

It is unacceptable that the citizens of this nation be alienated by their own government especially where border security and the enforcement and administration of our nation’s immigration laws are concerned!

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

November 2nd cannot come fast enough!

We the People, throughout this nation must seek opportunities to make it clear to our political “representatives” that we understand their game plan and won’t tolerate it!.

I believe our nation’s 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 and members of al-Qaeda!

If reading this makes it difficult for you to sleep now- perhaps you could do something worthwhile- perhaps you might spend a couple of your sleepless hours writing letters to your elected representatives this evening and remind them that Election Day is just months away!

We the People can add to the consternation of these politicians who are failing to live up to their oaths of office by contacting them and making it abundantly clear that election day is coming and they should think of election day as their personal “Day of Reckoning!”

Our government must live up to its obligation of protecting its own citizens and, indeed, all who are present in our country from the criminals and terrorists who would threaten our lives and the survival of our nation and our way of life. In the end, the government is actually those who are elected to act as our “leaders.” Those who fail to truly lead and look out for those they are supposed to represent, need to be sent packing this coming Election Day!

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. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

In just over two months, 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-