Shortly after noon on February 26, when a car bomb killed six people at New York's World Trade Center, U.S. immigration policy was literally blasted into a whole new arena of debate: that of national security. The process actually began a month earlier outside CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia, when two people were killed, allegedly by a Pakistani national armed with an AK-47 assault rifle. What these two incidents have in common, besides mayhem, is that, with few exceptions, the suspects had abused immigration and refugee laws to get here. Most of those directly or indirectly implicated in these eight murders (and in billions of dollars of damage and lost revenues) had entered the country under questionable circumstances.
For years, critics of U.S. immigration policies have been warning that our Swiss-cheese borders, outdated procedures for controlling entries and departures, and fraud-ridden political asylum and amnesty programs were a threat to our national security. Because the United States had been spared acts of terrorism on its soil, however, defenders of the status quo dismissed such warnings as alarmist.
That is, until this past winter. The two incidents proved just how easily anyone, including a notorious terrorist, can enter the United States, remain here indefinitely by tying our legal system in knots, and even acquire guns and explosives.
If a private corporation had been as remiss in protecting public safety, it would have rightfully been sued. Yet, even after eight deaths, the U.S. government continues its gross negligence in executing and enforcing immigration laws.
CASE OF THE SHIFTY SHEIKH
The saga of Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, the fiery Egyptian cleric who is the spiritual leader of the suspects in the World Trade Center bombing, is an illustration of the Keystone Cops manner in which this country attempts to keep undesirables out. Sheikh Rahman, who preaches a brand of radical Islam that has made him persona non grata in Egypt, was on a State Department lookout list of people to whom visas should not be issued. However, in May 1990, by simply going to the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, and changing the transliteration of his name, the sheikh was able to acquire a visa.
Three days after granting him the visa, the embassy in Khartoum realized its mistake and informed the State Department. No one is quite sure whether the State Department alerted the Immigration and Naturalization Service, but the INS never put him on its list of people to be detained if they attempt to enter the United States. Not only was he admitted, but a year later, the INS gave him a green
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