Hi Gang:
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-