COMING TO AMERICA
Census: 100,000 Mideast illegals in U.S.
worldnetdaily.com
Analysts say failure of immigration control contributed to 9-11 attacks
By Jon Dougherty
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
New U.S. Census Bureau statistics say there may be more than 100,000 illegal aliens of Mideast descent in the United States, a figure that is raising concern among some immigration and terrorism experts.
According to an analysis by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, perhaps as many as 115,000 illegal immigrants from various Mideast nations are currently residing in the U.S.
"The findings are especially troubling given the role failures in immigration control played in September 's terrorist attacks," said Steven A. Camarota, the center's director of research.
"Not only were at least three of the Sept. 11 hijackers illegal aliens, a number of past terrorists have also been illegal aliens from the Middle East, including Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer, who tried to bomb the New York subway system in 1997, and Mohammed Salameh, who took part in the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993," Camarota said.
The center's analysis found that about 24,000 of the illegal immigrants are from Israel, but the figure cited in its report does not include illegal immigrants from Pakistan, thought to harbor at least some elements loyal to terrorist Osama bin Laden and other radical Islamic organizations. The Immigration and Naturalization Service previously estimated Pakistan had more than 40,000 illegals in the U.S., the center's report said.
Camarota said the figures may also include some who have since been granted legal resident status.
"The figures for the Middle East also do not include North African countries such as Egypt and Algeria, which have sent a number of terrorists to the United States in the past," said the report. "Africa as a whole, including Sub-Saharan Africa, accounts for perhaps 243,000 illegals, according to the Census Bureau report. Overall, the report estimates that as many as 8.7 million illegal aliens may have been counted in the 2000 census."
The report said the Census Bureau's statistics provided a number of public-policy and legal implications.
For one, the Justice Department's recent effort to force 6,000 illegal Mideast immigrants to leave the United States "barely scratches the surface. ..."
Also, the report said, "efforts to more carefully scrutinize visa applications from Middle Eastern countries are likely to be far less effective if immigration laws continue to remain largely unenforced, as the figures in the [Census] report indicate."
Researchers also said that granting illegal immigrants amnesty doesn't solve the problem of illegal immigration.
"Although 2.7 million of the estimated 5 million illegal aliens living in the country in 1986 were given amnesty (legal permanent residence), the new estimates indicate that they have been entirely replaced by new illegal aliens and that by 2000 the illegal population was at least 3 million larger than before the last amnesty," the report said.
Finally, the report did not lay blame for the problem squarely at the feet of INS. Though the agency has "shortcomings," researchers concluded that "the problem lies with Congress and successive administrations, Democratic and Republican," because "all have failed to provide the money or political support the INS needs to enforce the ban on hiring illegals and to track down those who overstay their visas."
"It is difficult to overstate the implications of this new report for the security of our nation," Camarota said. "While the vast majority of illegals from the Middle East are not terrorists, the fact that tens of thousands of people from that region and millions more from the rest of the world can settle in the United States illegally means that terrorists who wish to do so face few obstacles."
"We can't protect ourselves from terrorism without dealing with illegal immigration," he added.
In the center's report, analysts concluded that the current terror threat to the U.S. "comes almost exclusively from foreign-born individuals." Because of that, researchers said, "immigration enforcement must be a central part of efforts to reduce the likelihood of future attacks."
But Hussein Ibish, a spokesman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, downplayed the Census figures and the CIS study.
In terms of the Sept. 11 attacks, Mideast illegal immigrant figures "are really not a problem," he told WorldNetDaily.
"Organized operatives" who are part of a "well-funded, well-financed ... organization can secure valid visas and be here lawfully," he said. "Most of the people here were not here unlawfully."
He said he believed that "any well-organized group" could overcome even tough immigration laws.
"I think that a lot of groups that are fundamentally anti-immigrant ... are seizing on the issue of terrorism to raise a whole set of concerns that have nothing to do with terrorism, but do have to do with immigration – particularly from non-European countries – to try to scare Americans into thinking there's a connection between immigration ... and political violence in the United States," Ibish said. "That's completely false."
The CIS report, however, said the U.S. government's history of lax immigration enforcement likely contributed to the Sept. 11 attacks.
"By not adequately policing the borders; by not enforcing time limits on visas and the ban on hiring illegals; by allowing illegals to attend college, open bank accounts, and obtain driver's licenses with little difficulty and by not even ensuring that those who are ordered deported actually go home, it is inevitable that millions of illegal aliens will settle in the United States, including tens of thousands from the primary terrorist-sending countries," the report concluded.
The president of the American Civil Liberties Union, in testimony to a special House panel, said yesterday that she believes the government has reneged on its promise to ensure that Arab-Americans were treated fairly, especially when implementing the USA Patriot Act, passed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Nadine Strossen told the panel, chaired by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., that – according to information obtained by the ACLU via the Freedom of Information Act – many Arab-American detainees were held for weeks, sometimes months, before being charged with a crime or immigration offense, "a practice completely at odds with the Constitution."
"Be it deliberate or accidental, there is no excuse for the dissemination of misinformation to the public, especially in a time such as this," Strossen told the panel. "It is precisely because the investigation into the monstrous attacks of September 11 is of the most urgent public concern that the public must be privy to full and accurate information."
During testimony, Strossen also called on Congress to establish bodies of government officials and private individuals to monitor the implementation of the Patriot Act "and respond to complaints alleging civil-liberties or civil-rights violations in the terrorism investigation," according to a statement issued by the group.
In October, WorldNetDaily published an exclusive story that said the number of illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. from Arab nations was on the rise.
"It's almost incredible to recognize, as part of the overall strategy this government is going to employ to deal with the issue of terrorism, that we would not concentrate heavily on securing our borders and try to do everything humanly possible to stop people who have evil intent from coming into the United States," Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said in an Oct. 9 speech on the floor of the House. |
