It is entirely understandable that there is great consternation about the obvious national security issues created by admitting aliens who claim to be refugees from Syria into the United States. The vetting process of such aliens is fatally flawed because our officials do not have access to databases or other sources of reliable information to ascertain the true identities and backgrounds of these foreign nationals.
Consequently, a growing list of governors and other elected officials, from both parties, are calling for suspending the administration’s plans to re-settle Syrian refugees in the United States, until and unless the fatal flaws within the vetting process are remedied.
On November 19, 2015 the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, chaired by Congressman Trey Gowdy, conducted a hearing on the topic, “The Syrian Refugee Crisis and Its Impact on the Security of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.”
However, many of the very same politicians who demand we at least temporarily suspend the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States, because we cannot vet them, remain eager to provide millions of illegal aliens with lawful status and official identity documents, blithely ignoring what should be obvious: aliens who run our borders, that is to say, enter without inspection — whether by running the Mexican or Canadian borders or stowing away on ships — are not vetted at all.
Indeed, when such aliens succeed in evading the Border Patrol and make their way into the interior of the United States, there is no record of their entry. The open borders/immigration anarchists euphemistically refer to them as being “undocumented.” This means that they have no official or reliable documentation to attest to their true identities or backgrounds, including their respective countries of citizenship.
To state it succinctly, entry without inspection = entry without vetting.
The inspections process conducted at ports of entry is supposed to prevent the entry of aliens whose presence in the United States poses a threat to safety and wellbeing of America and Americans.
Title 8 U.S. Code § 1182 – Inadmissible aliens enumerates the grounds for excluding aliens from the United States and includes aliens infected with dangerous communicable diseases, suffer from extreme mental illness and are prone to violence, aliens who are criminals, human rights violators, war criminals, spies or terrorists. Finally that list also includes aliens who would likely become public charges or displace American workers. There is nothing in that list that relates to the race, religion or ethnicity of these aliens only our safety and wellbeing.
Many aliens who have entered the United States without inspections are citizens of countries from around the world including Syria and other countries associated with terrorism. These aliens often make their way to Mexico seeking to enter the United States without being vetted.
On November 18, 2015 CNN reported, “Honduras detains 5 Syrians over fake passports” and on November 21, 2015 Fox News reported, “3 Syrians with fake passports detained in Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten, 1 stopped in Honduras.”
While many of these aliens are not necessary directly involved with ISIS or al-Qaeda or other terror organizations, without a “scorecard” there is no way of determining if these aliens have such affiliations or are sympathetic to the radical Islamic cause and would be willing to provide vital support to terrorists who enter the United States.
Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 politicians from both parties have repeated the mantra, “We are fighting the terrorists over there so that we won’t have to fight them over here.” However, the attacks of 9/11 were conducted here. The Boston Marathon was obviously conducted inside the United States. Many other terror attacks that, for one reason or another thankfully did not succeed in killing innocent victims, were to be carried out over here, within our borders.
The United States and its allies must eradicate the malignant terror organizations overseas, but our leaders must recognize the undeniable fact that there are sleeper cells already in the United States with more international terrorists seeking to gain entry into the United States each and every day.
While our armed forces must succeed in wiping the scourge of ISIS and other terror organizations off the face of this planet, no matter where they may be, the DHS must finally live up to its name (Department of Homeland Security) and protect America and Americans by securing our borders and effectively enforcing and administering our immigration laws from within the interior of the United States to prevent terrorists from entering the United States and then embedding them in communities around our country as they go about their deadly preparations to launch a terror attack inside our country.
Demanding that our borders be secured and integrity be instilled in the entire immigration system is not about xenophobia but about taking a commonsense approach, to enhance national security, in an extremely perilous era.