Immigration and National Security

Immigration and National Security
by Michelle Malkin

The following is excerpted from a speech delivered at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar on May 20, 2008, in New York City.
Michelle Malkin, a columnist for Creators Syndicate since 1999, has also worked at the Los Angeles Daily News and the Seattle Times. A graduate of Oberlin College, she blogs on michellemalkin.com and is founder and co-editor of hotair.com. In 2002, she published Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores.

WE ALL KNOW what happened on September 11, 2001. But how many of us recall what happened on February 26, 1993? That was the date of the first World Trade Center attack, the precursor to 9/11 carried out by a cell of Middle Eastern jihadists. Key members of that cell were illegal aliens.

Mahmud Abouhalima was an Egyptian illegal alien working as a cab driver in New York. He falsely claimed to be an agricultural worker under the 1986 illegal alien amnesty law and snagged a green card that allowed him to travel back and forth to Pakistan for al Qaeda training. Abouhalima said he was a strawberry picker, even though he had never been anywhere near a strawberry field. Overwhelmed INS workers—who are driven to reduce backlogs by simply shredding or rubber stamping applications—failed to vet his claims.

Mohammed Salameh, the operative who rented the truck used in the 1993 bombing, was denied amnesty after filing a bogus claim. But because the INS didn’t have the resources or the will to deport him, he was able to work and plot freely right under our noses.

The mastermind of the 1993 plot and of another foiled plot to bomb New York landmarks, Sheik Abdul Rahman, won asylum here based on a fraudulent claim and was allowed to remain thanks to a deadly combination of immigration and intelligence lapses. Seven people died and thousands were injured in the first World Trade Center bombing, which amounted to a trial run for the attack that would lead to the deaths of another 3,000 innocent men, women, and children eight years later.

All of the 9/11 hijackers entered the country with short-term visas issued by State Department consular offices abroad. Fifteen of the 19 came from Saudi Arabia, where a special program allowed them to get fast-track visas. The program, called Visa Express, was hatched by American bureaucrats who were concerned about wealthy Saudis waiting in long lines. So no one bothered to double-check the hijackers’ applications, which were so sloppy that they made no sense. To give you a couple of examples, one of them put "Washington hotel" as his address and another described his occupation as "Teeter." Thus, despite obviously lying on their applications, they gained entry to plot mass murder on American soil.

Once in the U.S., several of the hijackers needed fake government documents. They hooked up with illegal alien day laborers who hung out at a Virginia convenience store near the Pentagon. After waiting around with a couple of $20 bills, an illegal alien from El Salvador was willing and able to give them the documents that they needed to board the planes they flew on 9/11. The local cops whom I interviewed admit knowing that those people hanging around the convenience store were here illegally, but they did nothing about it.

The lesson is this: Lax immigration enforcement enables enemy foreign agents to exploit a system that was intended to welcome those who want to make better lives for themselves on our terms. Before 9/11, our nation convinced itself that it could afford massive, systematic abuse and undermining of immigration laws. After 1993, in an age of Islamic terrorism and nuclear threat, we should have been permanently disabused of that notion. But we continued in our folly. And we continue in it still today.

• Some 400,000 illegal aliens have been ordered to be deported, but are on the loose in the U.S. after being released by federal immigration courts.

• There are only 20,000 detention beds in the entire country to hold illegal aliens.

• There are only 2,000 federal agents employed by the Department of Homeland Security to track down the estimated 12-20 million illegal aliens who are living, working, going to school, getting driver’s licenses and, yes, committing crimes and plotting terrorist attacks in America as we speak.

• Border fences to our north and south are a joke, even while we’re sending money to Egypt and Mexico to help them build fences on their southern borders.

Despite the fact that Congress created the behemoth Department of Homeland Security, there is still no systematic tracking of criminal alien felons across the country; sanctuary for illegal aliens—that is, deliberate non-enforcement of the laws— remains the policy in almost every major metropolis; and "catch and release" remains standard operating procedure for untold thousands of illegal aliens who pass through the fingers of federal immigration authorities every day.

My book, Invasion, argued in great detail that our current immigration and entrance system is in shambles, partly by neglect and partly by design. From America’s negligent consular offices overseas, to our porous air, land, and sea points of entry, to our ineffective detention and deportation policies, our federal immigration authorities have failed at every level to protect our borders and preserve our sovereignty.

The argument of my book was simple: Immigration in a post-9/11 world must be treated as a national security issue. Enforcement of immigration laws must be clear and consistent. Lawbreakers must be punished, not rewarded. Illegal aliens must be deported, not naturalized. And the national interest, not special interests—whether Big Business or liberal multiculturalism—must drive immigration policy.

I agree with the late Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan—a liberal black Democrat and respected immigration authority—who said that credible immigration policy rests on three simple principles: "People who should get in, get in; people who should not enter are kept out; and people who are deportable should be required to leave."

Contrary to the misguided claims of today’s open-borders lobby, the demand for a more discriminating immigration policy—one that welcomes American dreamers and bars American destroyers—does not stem from fear or hatred of foreigners, but from the idea of self-preservation and from love of country.

Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution states clearly: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion." We are not a boarding house for the world. We are a sovereign nation. It’s time we started acting like one.

There are plenty of reports of gang violence south of the border. According to this Daily Telegraph Article:

Since January, more than 1,300 people have been killed in execution-style hits or gunned down in fire fights, which often rage for hours in broad daylight and turn residential neighbourhoods into war zones. If the trend continues, 2008 will top last year's toll of 2,500 deaths in drug-related killings.

You don't hear so much about Americans at the Border. Too bad.

Americans are regularly abused. According to this article entitled US Warns Tourists of 'Small-Unit Combat' at Mexico Border -- Murder and kidnapping of Americans has become routine all along the US Mexican border. According to the State Department sometimes heavily armed attackers wear the uniforms of the Mexican police or military.

If there is silence about events at the border. The silence about killings north of the border is deafening. And yet....

More Americans killed by illegal aliens than Iraq war, study says Think about it. A man or woman killed in Iraq or Iran in the line of duty is a hero. But what is an American killed at home by an illegal alien because the government has failed in its sworn duty to guard the borders. This is a pact between the sovereign and the person has paid taxes and loyalty. The answer is to that question is pretty awful. And it bodes ill for the republic.

But is it true?

Yes, according Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.When you start digging into the numbers the only ones that can be sourced with the feds are the number of American murdered in 2005: 16692
I have seen federal numbers for illegals held in jail ranging from 19.3% to 27% of the federal prison population.

Here's a sampling of USA cities wanted for murder. What you'll see is that in big USA cities like LA or NYC most of the murderers are Hispanic. Unknown are the % of illegals. In smaller cities the FBI will post the nationalities of the murderers. About 25% of the most wanted are illegals wanted for murder. This number agrees with the percentage of illegals incarcerated in federal prisons. +-25%
Pictures of top 10 most wanted in LA. Up until recent stories about crime in LA posted by the LA Times--the pictures included the nationality of the murderers. They were all foreign nationals and mostly Mexican.

Wanted for Murder in New York City.

Chicago wanted for Murder

Philadelphia wanted for murder

San Francisco wanted for Murder

New Orleans wanted for Murder

Pictures of suspects wanted for murder in Washington DC

FBI USA 10 most wanted. (two of 10 are Mexican nationals) Around 40% of the FBI's wanted for murder are Mexican Nationals

There are currently no exact numbers on the number of Americans killed by illegals. Part of the reason is that the government deliberately obscures the number. I talked on the phone with the head of statistics for the US Bureau of Prisons. He said his office wasn't allowed to publish the number of illegal alien murderers. Rather they were forced to put legal and non legal residents in the same category. He said further that most of illegals in the federal prisons were in for drug related charges. Most of the illegals in jail for murder were in the state prisons. I talked to ICE. They put out detailed numbers on illegal child molestors. However, they put out nothing on illegal murderers.

Part of the reason for the silence on the matter is that there is evidence to suggest that most Americans--but by no means all -- being killed by illegals are black--as is the suggestion in this LA Times Article. Also this article from the LA Times. And here. This makes intuitive sense. We see stories regularly of drug gang killings in Mexico but we don't see those same stories in the USA. The reason we don't see those stories is not because its not happening. Rather we don't see the stories about illegals killing blacks because that kind of story is terribly politically incorrect. The populations being displaced in downtown sanctuary cities especially are American blacks. That means that their criminal elements would be pushed aside by Mexican gangs as well. That's also the story that the wanted for murder posters in all the major cities seems to suggest.

Why isn't there an outcry in the black community? Beats me.

Nevertheless, the pattern of non reporting is starting to break. Discovery Channel has a series called Gangland that mentions ethnic cleasing of blacks by Mexican gangs

Reported Foreign Nationals on Death Row in the U.S.

To look at other USA cities go here http://stlouis.fbi.gov/ and replace stlouis with the city you want.

All that said the true number of criminal aliens is far higher than is revealed by criminal aliens in prisons. Most are simply waived through the courts.DHS Secretary Chertoff, has been quoted as warning that two million people in this country illegally have committed serious crimes. If you check the links you'll notice that its McCain who cites Chertoff. See also here and here Here is more info from Judicial Watch.

However the number of illegals on death row is far lower. Sadly, so many small towns and villages across America have sent their warriors off to war half way across the world only to see communities fill up with illegal aliens.

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