Tweet

Kris W. Kobac writes today in the Washington Times:

The ability of terrorists to obtain legal status by fraudulently applying for amnesty is also well established.
…
A 2005 study by Janice Kephart, counsel to the September 11 commission, found that 59 out of 94 foreign-born terrorists (about two in three) successfully committed immigration fraud to acquire or adjust legal status. So, we know that terrorists will seek amnesty under the Senate bill. Unfortunately, the legislation creates two huge doorways for them to get it.

First, the bill limits the government’s ability to stop a terrorist operating under his real name, because it allows the government only one business day to do a “background check.” If the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adjudicator can’t find any terrorist connection in time, the alien receives a probationary “Z” visa, allowing him to work and roam the country at will.

This might work if the government had a single, readily searchable database of all the world’s terrorists. But we don’t. Much information exists only on paper, while foreign governments are the source for other data. Twenty-four hours simply isn’t enough time. It’s a terrorist fast track [emphasis added mine].

Moreover, as a practical matter, the adjudicators wouldn’t even have 24 hours. As the Government Accountability Office reported in 2006, USCIS is already stretched to the breaking point, receiving approximately 6 million applications for immigration benefits (asylum, green cards, etc.) annually. As a result, the GAO concluded, failure to detect fraud is already “an ongoing and serious problem.” It’s so bad that an informal “six-minute rule” is in place — spend no more than six minutes looking at any application.

Assuming (conservatively) that 12 million illegal aliens apply for the amnesty within the year allowed, it would triple the annual workload, from 6 million applications to 18 million. Consequently, applications for the amnesty would receive only a few minutes of scrutiny. Terrorist applications would sail through.

The second doorway is just as troubling. The Senate bill also fails to stop terrorists who invent an entirely “clean” identity. Because the bill contains no requirement that the alien produce a secure foreign passport proving that he is who he says he is, terrorists will easily game the system.

A terrorist could walk into a USCIS office and offer a completely fictitious name — one without any negative information associated with it. In other words, a terrorist could declare that his name is “Rumpelstiltskin,” produce two easily forged scraps of paper indicating that he was in the country before Jan. 1, 2007, and walk out with a probationary Z visa — complete with a government-issued ID card backing up his false identity.

Don’t expect proponents of the bill to fix that loophole. The majority of the 12-20 million illegal aliens do not possess a passport. Requiring them to present one would disqualify too many aliens for the pro-amnesty crowd Consequently, dozens of terrorists will receive amnesty if the bill becomes law.

Tweet