Author: Tony

"No Do Overs!"

Hi Gang:

The immigration debate has been rancorous and rarely fact-based or fact-driven.  In point of fact, most of the participants in the debate could have candidly said, “Don’t confuse me with the facts!”
What is most often not being acknowledged or understood by the participants in the debate- especially among the advocates for “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” is the true significance of America’s immigration laws and her borders.
Without a true appreciation of the significance of America’s borders and immigration laws and with incredible pressure being brought to bear by those who stand to profit greatly by a massive amnesty program for illegal aliens, we should all be concerned about the potential for members of the House of Representatives might be convinced (coerced?) into passing immigration legislation that would do irreparable harm to America and Americans.  

This concern served as my predication for a commentary I wrote for the CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization) website which I have attached below.Before we get to the commentary it is important to discuss how flawed the debates about immigration have been and understanding how critical our immigration laws are. To provide simple and unequivocal evidence that our immigration laws are among the most important of all federal laws currently on the books, you need only consider the provisions of Title 8, United States Code, Section 1182 which is a part of the Immigration and Nationality Act and codifies the various categories of aliens who are to be excluded from the United States.  It begins with aliens who suffer dangerous communicable diseases or suffer from extreme mental illness thereby posing a threat to public safety because they are prone to violence or are sex offenders.  The list includes aliens who are fugitives from justice, aliens who had been previously deported from the United States and aliens whose criminal convictions for serious crimes would pose a serious threat to public safety and/or national security.  

Additionally aliens who are human rights violators, war criminals, spies and terrorists are also deemed excludible as are aliens who would become public charges or seek to work illegally, thereby providing unfair competition for American workers and, in so doing, not only displace American workers, but drive down wages and working conditions for American workers and those people lawfully entitled to work in the United States.  

These categories of exclusion make good commonsense and are hardly trivial.  Yet, the advocates for providing amnesty for unknown million, indeed, likely tens of millions of illegal aliens apparently could not care less about the reason that the United States has immigration laws or what would happen should sweeping legislation undermine those very laws.When an alien evades the inspections process, it is obvious that he (she) belongs to one or more categories of aliens who are statutorily ineligible to enter the United States.  It may be because the alien in question is likely to seek illegal employment or it may be that the alien has far more sinister intentions in evading the inspections process.  
If we were to enter our home and find an uninvited intruder siting on our living room sofa we would most likely instinctively ask, “What are you doing here?”  We would likely call the police and have them arrest the intruder and, at the very  least, have him charged with trespassing and breaking and entering.  No sensible person would likely cut the intruder a duplicate key to the front door of their home to provide the uninvited “guest” and change the linen in the guest room for him (her).  Yet this is precisely what Comprehensive Immigration Reform would do for millions of aliens who identities including their countries of citizenship may be impossible to reliably determine.  It would certainly be all but impossible to readily determine the motivation for that alien to enter the United States surreptitiously or even determine when, where or how that alien entered the United States.
Yet this is precisely what is being done under the provisions of the DACA (Deferred Action- Childhood Arrival) program implemented on the whim- actually the policy decisions of the administration without the benefit of legislation.  This is how Comprehensive Immigration Reform would also be administered should that fatally flawed legislation be enacted.What has been ignored by those who favor the DREAM Act which is the template for the DACA program, is that the age cutoff for the participants is 31.  All that the alien has to do is claim to have entered the United States as a child in order to qualify.  There are no face-to-face interviews being conducted and no resources for ICE to conduct field investigations to determine if the information contained in the applications are truthful or factually accurate.
If you wonder why DACA program currently permits aliens who are essentially approaching middle age to be provided with identity documents and at least temporary lawful status while the claim is made that this program is about “children” so do I.
I have a hunch, however.  There have been studies that state that the vast majority of illegal aliens present in the United States are under the age of 35.  It would certainly appear that the goal of the advocates for the DREAM Act wanted to do whatever they could to include as many illegal aliens as possible in this program and do so under the guise of helping “young children!”

On June 17, 2012 Fox News Latino posted my commentary about President Obama’s plan to essentially enact the provisions of the DREAM act without the benefit of legislation.  In my piece, that was entitled, Obama Invokes Prosecutorial Discretion to Circumvent Constitution and Congress I stated that what the President referred to as “prosecutorial discretion” was really an unmitigated example of “prosecutorial deception. 
What has been missing from just about every discussion about immigration is the lack of integrity to the process by which visas are issued to aliens and to the process by which applications for immigration benefits are adjudicated.
The next time you hear someone say that we have to help the children, please consider that because proposed legislation would include aliens who are approaching middle age, there would be no reliable way to determine when the alien in question actually entered the United States.  This means that any requirement that an alien had been physically present in the United States for a designated period of years would be all but impossible to verity.  It would also mean that there would be no way of easily determining if an alien actually entered the United States as a “child” if the alien applicant is in his (her) twenties or older.
Remember, there would be no way for USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to do face-to-face interviews, let alone conduct actual field investigations. 
 
There is another  bit of evidence I have saved for the end of this e-mail and one that should be the “show stopper” where any massive amnesty program for unknown millions of illegal aliens is concerned.
When an airliner crashes the NTSB immediately conducts and investigation to determine if human error, aircraft design, weather conditions and/or aircraft maintenance procedures contributed to the crash.  The findings of the NTSB often result in changes in pilot training, maintenance procedures or other such curative measures being mandated to prevent similar accidents.
As my dad used to say, there are no mistakes in life, only lessons, if we learn from what goes wrong and make the appropriate changes.  For my dad, and for me, however, it is unacceptable to continue to do the same wrong-headed things the same wrong way.  In fact, insanity has been defined as doing the same things the same way and expecting a different outcome!
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 the National Commission on the Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States was formed and many witnesses were interviewed.  I provided testimony to that commission.
The result of the investigation of the commission was the report that was entitled:

THE 9/11 COMMISSIONREPORT: Final Report of the National Commission on TerroristAttacks Upon the United States

Additionally, members of the 9/11 Commission staff put together an important volume that was entitled:


The 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel 

The preface of the report begins with the following three paragraphs:


Preface

It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United
States if they are unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were
efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border
security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers
demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the
United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security
policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following pages, that it must be made
one.

Congress gave the Commission the mandate to study, evaluate, and report on
“immigration, nonimmigrant visas and border security” as these areas relate to the events
of 9/11. This staff report represents 14 months of such research. It is based on thousands
of pages of documents we reviewed from the State Department, the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice,
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of
Defense, approximately 25 briefings on various border security topics, and more than 200
interviews. We are grateful to all who assisted and supported us along the way.

The story begins with “A Factual Overview of the September 11 Border Story.” This
introduction summarizes many of the key facts of the hijackers’ entry into the United
States. In it, we endeavor to dispel the myth that their entry into the United States was
“clean and legal.” It was not. Three hijackers carried passports with indicators of Islamic
extremism linked to al Qaeda; two others carried passports manipulated in a fraudulent
manner. It is likely that several more hijackers carried passports with similar fraudulent
manipulation. Two hijackers lied on their visa applications. Once in the United States,
two hijackers violated the terms of their visas. One overstayed his visa. And all but one
obtained some form of state identification. We know that six of the hijackers used these
state issued identifications to check in for their flights on September 11. Three of them
were fraudulently obtained.
This report detailed numerous examples of instances where terrorists not only made use of visa and immigration benefit fraud to enter the United States but to also embed themselves in the United States. Page 47 of this report noted

Once terrorists had entered the United States, their next challenge was to find a way to remain here. Their primary method was immigration fraud. For example, Yousef and Ajaj concocted bogus political asylum stories when they arrived in the United States. Mahmoud Abouhalima, involved in both the World Trade Center and landmarks plots, received temporary residence under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers (SAW) program, after falsely claiming that he picked beans in Florida.

This paragraph is found on page 98 under the title “Immigration Benefits:”

“Terrorists in the 1990s, as well as the September 11 hijackers, needed to find a way to stay in or embed themselves in the United States if their operational plans were to come to fruition. As already discussed, this could be accomplished legally by marrying an American citizen, achieving temporary worker status, or applying for asylum after entering. In many cases, the act of filing for an immigration benefit sufficed to permit the alien to remain in the country until the petition was adjudicated. Terrorists were free to conduct surveillance, coordinate operations, obtain and receive funding, go to school and learn English, make contacts in the United States, acquire necessary materials, and execute an attack.”

Congress is about to declare a recess- it is vital that you do everything you can to contact the member of the House of Representatives who is supposed to represent you and your family and raise the issues contained in my commentary.  In just a few short weeks they will reconvene and are likely to take up Comprehensive Immigration Reform.


Immigration is not a single issue but a singular issue that impacts nearly every challenge and threat confronting the United States today!  Simply stated, the immigration laws were enacted to save lives and protect the jobs of American workers.

Our armed forces are charged with securing America’s borders externally while the DHS is supposed to secure those same borders from within.  The failures of the DHS to live up to its half of the equation are undermining the efforts, valor and incredible sacrifices of Americas men and women who serve in our military!

If our government’s failures to protect American jobs by securing our nation’s borders and effectively enforcing our immigration laws 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!


It is not “Anti-immigrant” to be Pro-American!

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- 


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“No Do Overs”

Michael W. Cutler, Senior Special Agent, INS (Ret.)

Senior Fellow, Californians for Population Stabilization

When we were growing up and playing a game, if somehow something went wrong, one of us would yell, “Do over!”

We then got to replay the last play of the game we were playing.

When laws are passed that create unintended consequences, those laws can be tweaked or even repealed altogether by subsequent laws. Even the United States Constitution has seen this sort of process play out. The 18th Amendment outlawed alcoholic beverages. The 21st Amendment was ratified to repeal the 18th Amendment. In essence, this constituted a “Constitutional Do Over.”

Where Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR), the DREAM Act and other such legislative “solutions” to the immigration crisis are concerned, there would be no going back if such laws are passed. The government could not, for example, create laws that would provide millions of illegal aliens with lawful status and then decide to undo the damage created by unintended consequences.

Advocates for CIR claim that about eleven million illegal aliens would participate in the program. In 1986, the advocates for the Immigration Reform and Control Act “guesstimated” that roughly a million to a million and half illegal aliens would participate in that supposed “one time” amnesty program only to find out that nearly 4 million illegal aliens ultimately participated. If CIR was enacted and a similar proportion of additional aliens were to participate, more than 30 million illegal aliens would participate. Once legalized, aliens could not be summarily stripped of their lawful status.

There would be no remedy to this problem. Even if it was determined that insurmountable problems were created for the national security, the economy, unemployment, education, healthcare, critical infrastructures of towns and cities and a host of other such issues, there would be no remedy. There would be no way to call for a “Do Over!”

On January 28, 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off into an unusually frigid sky above Cape Canaveral. Many engineers and others involved with the countdown and the launch process warned that the conditions were too hazardous for a safe launch, but the managers at NASA were suffering from “Go Fever.” They were eager to launch the shuttle to maintain the schedule. Once the solid rocket boosters were ignited and the shuttle was committed to launch, the fate of Shuttle Challenger and her valiant astronaut crew was sealed. Approximately 72 seconds after liftoff, the shuttle and its crew were obliterated.

On June 22, 2007 the Washington Times published my Op-Ed about my concerns about Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation that was then being hotly debated in the United States Senate. I drew the same analogy back then as I have today, comparing the wrong-headed decision to launch Space Shuttle Challenger with the wrong-headed arguments to enact horrible legislation, for all the wrong reasons. What I said back then is just as relevant today.

My article was entitled:

Immigration bill a ‘No Go’

In my Op-Ed I suggested that Comprehensive Immigration Reform be given a more honest and accurate name. I suggested it be renamed the “Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act. I was gratified that back then, Senator Sessions quoted excerpts from my piece from the floor of the Senate on three separate days during the floor debate.

When Chuck Schumer and his other gangsters say that it is unacceptable to not act- I respond by saying that the wrong action is worse than no action.

Our leaders, in considering the well-being of American citizens, need to adopt the provision of the Hippocratic Oath that succinctly states:

“I will keep them from harm and injustice.”

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