Posted on 11/06/2001 5:56:34 PM PST by classygreeneyedblonde
Experts Say U.S. Borders 'Wide Open To Terrorists'
Only 400 Agents Responsible For 4,000-Mile U.S.-Canadian Border
Almost 9 Million People Reside Illegally In The United States
(Reuters) The borders and entry points to the United States leak like sieves, offering the nation little or no protection against potential terrorists who can enter the country undetected, immigration experts said Tuesday.
It should be universally recognized that our borders are out of control," said Bill King, a retired senior Border Patrol agent and former head of the Border Patrol Academy.
King told a seminar organized by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think-tank, that there were almost 9 million people illegally residing in the United States.
They can be job seekers, criminals, disease carriers and now they can be foreign agents ... Both our borders (with Mexico and Canada) are sieves. Anyone can cross either order today," he said.
Of the 19 people thought to have carried out the suicide hijackings on Sept. 11 that killed around 4,800 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, at least 13 entered the country as tourists, business travelers or students. The entry of the others cannot be accounted for.
In a recent paper, Steven Camarota and Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, argued that "the current terrorist threat to the United States comes almost exclusively from individuals who arrive from abroad ... Unfortunately, prior to September 11, a portion of America's elite had come to see our borders as little more than an irritant, an obstacle to be overcome by travelers and businessmen
Peter Nunez, a former U.S. attorney for San Diego, said the Immigration and Naturalization Service suffered from a lack of money, manpower and equipment and low morale. He said special interest groups interested in securing a source of low-paying labor, consistently thwarted efforts to control the borders.
Some states were now issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, which they could then use as identification to board aircraft, Nunez said.
Why are we allowing people to create false identities to hide in plain sight?" he said
When Kentucky stopped requiring foreign applicants to take drivers' tests and delivering licenses on the spot in 1996, the number of foreign applicants exploded within weeks, coming from as far away as New York to get licenses
Jessica Vaughan, a former Foreign Service consular officer, said the State Department had forgotten its role in national security when it issued visas. Its officers concentrated on handling the maximum amount of visa applications in the shortest possible time, rather than trying to weed out those who could be a threat.
Krikorian said visa officers regarded foreign applicants rather than the American people as their primary customers and preferred to keep them happy, rather than keep them waiting.
He also noted that only around 400 agents were responsible for patrolling the 4,000-mile border with Canada, where "Islamic terrorists are more likely to slip into the country from the sizable Canadian Muslim community that can provide them with cover".
Several speakers noted that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and other law enforcement agencies made no effort to keep track of visitors, legal or illegal, once they had entered the country.
"If you can sneak past the border, you are home free. Nobody is going to look for you," said Nunez.
If illegal immigrants can get through the border, then so can drug dealers, so can terrorists," he said.
One of the Sept. 11 hijackers entered the country on a student visa but never attended a single class.
Krikorian and Camarota would like to see every applicant for a U.S. visa fingerprinted and their prints placed in an integrated system that could be accessed by every agency involved in the immigration process.
Visa officers should be empowered to deny visas to people who are clearly enemies of the United States but who have not actually engaged in terrorism," they said.
They also urged greater scrutiny of citizens wishing to come to the United States from countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Students and others from such countries needed to be tracked once they arrived in the United States to ensure they were doing what they came to do and did not overstay their visas.
The INS says 389,427 illegal aliens were caught crossing the border from Mexico in southern CA in fiscal year 1999. I suspect many more weren't caught. This is ONLY in California.
Illegals not registering for draft face 5 years jail.
How about prosecuting the officials who are not enforcing the laws.
Maybe start with whoever put into effect the Kentucky driver's license insanity.
Throwing illegals out doesn't have to wait for new technology to be invented or any other reason to delay.
All illegals OUT!
Now!!
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