Earlier today I taped an appearance for Christine Romans’ CNN program “Your Bottom Line” that will air tomorrow, Saturday, April 27th at 9:30 AM Eastern Daylight Saving Time and will re-air on Sunday, April 28th at 3:00 PM Eastern Time.
For this show, Christine moderated a debate between CNN contributor and Republican strategist Anna Navarro and myself on what impact, if any, the Boston terror attacks should have on Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
I hope you will watch Christine’s excellent show this weekend!
I was gratified to be called to participate in this discussion because, as you likely know, I have been consistently concerned about the utter lack of integrity to the immigration system. These failures have been my focus when I have testified before Congressional hearings and elsewhere.
This is one of the most serious issues concerning the immigration crisis, yet it has been utterly ignored.
While the focus on Comprehensive Immigration Reform has been on the security or lack thereof, to be found along the Mexican border, there is is precious little integrity to be found in the way applications for political asylum, lawful immigrant status and even United States citizenship are adjudicated.
There are millions of illegal aliens present in the United States who violated the terms of their admission- yet nothing is done to modify the inspections process to try to reduce the number of aliens who, each year, violate the terms of their admission.
Meanwhile, no one is discussing any of these failings and the Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation would do nothing to address these serious issues that undermine the immigration system and national security.
On April 16, 2013 AIM (Accuracy In Media) posted my commentary
I actually wrote that article about a week earlier. In point of fact the terrorist bombing of the Boston Marathon took place the day before my article was posted. In it I focused on the lack of integrity to the immigration system and the impact that this has on national security.
The terrorist attacks on April 15, 2013 must serve as the wakeup call for our leaders- mandating that they revisit the nexus between the multitude of failures of the immigration system that undermine national security
Incredibly, rather than seek to address the failures of the immigration system, Chuck Schumer and the others “gangsters” as well as other politicians, from both sides of the political aisle, are now citing the bombing as a reason to enact Comprehensive Immigration Reform quickly, purportedly to get the unknown millions of illegal aliens out of the shadows.
Wow!
This advice makes as much sense as the wacky advice I once heard a comic give on a television show when he said the way to “cure” a hangover was to not stop drinking booze! (I guess his “reasonsing” was that since a hangover occurs after you have stopped pouring alcohol into your stomach, if you don’t stop imbibing, you will never suffer from a hangover!)
Neither of the Tsarnaev brothers were hiding in the shadows. The apparent incompetence and ineptitude of USCIS enabled them and other members of their family to be granted political asylum and then, in the case of the younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, U.S. citizenship. It would appear that they may well have committed fraud in applying for political asylum. To apply for political asylum they had to claim a “credible fear” that serious harm would come to them because of their race, religion, ethnicity or political beliefs, should they return to their country of citizenship (Russia). However, even though there was no regime change in Russia, they willingly traveled to Russia after they were granted political asylum in the United States. You might say that they seemingly went from credible fear to incredible fear!
This is not the first time suspected terrorists gamed the immigration system.
The lack of integrity to the immigration system, as I have documented in numerous commentaries and have provided testimony to numerous Congressional hearings and in my testimony for the 9/11 Commission prompted me, in 2007, to write an Op-Ed for the Washington Times in which I stated that Comprehensive Immigration Reform should be given a new and more accurate and honest name. I recommended that it be called the “Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act!”
Senator Sessions showed his agreement with my position and concerns by quoting me from the floor of the United States Senate during the contentious floor debates back then, on three separate days.
That ill-conceived legislative disaster was, fortunately, defeated.
Now, as Yogi Berra might say, “Deja vu all over again!”
Perhaps we could now refer to Comprehensive Immigration Reform by a couple of additional names- for example, the “Freddy Krueger Act” inasmuch as it keeps rising up from the dead!
Alternatively we could call it the “Immigration Insanity Act!” (Insanity has been defined as doing the same things the same way and expecting a different outcome.)
The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) that contained an amnesty provision that was supposed to be a one time amnesty, that would bring an estimated one million illegal aliens “out of the shadows.” When the bureaucratic dust settled more than 3.5 million aliens were placed on a pathway to United States citizenship including terrorists and assorted criminals who easily gamed the immigration system by committing fraud.
One of the many reasons that the Amnesty of 1986 failed was that while for the first time it rendered the intentional employment of illegal aliens a crime, the former INS, for which I worked for 30 years, was not given the additional resources to enforce the employer sanctions provisions of the new law and, in fact, no new resources were provided to the INS to enforce any of the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States.
Today’s “new and improved” version of “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” would provide many more aliens with lawful status- without even face-to-face interviews and with no resources to investigate suspected immigration fraud.
The 9/11 Commission cited immigration fraud and visa fraud as being essential tools of terrorists- and not only the terrorists who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, but on prior instances as well.
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!
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!
Also please check out my website at AND Magazine:
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