Terrorism - Security Center for Immigration Studies - Issues on United States Terrorist Activities

This section of security center for immigration studies focuses on terrorism and immigration and how they impact national security.

• Immigration and Terrorism: What Is to Be Done? - by Steven A. Camarota, Mark Krikorian, Center for Immigration Studies, November 2001
  ... one aspect of increased preparedness must not be overlooked - changes in immigration and border control... The front lines are at the border. Much has been written about how we are involved in a new kind of war. In this new kind of conflict, America's borders are a major theater of operations; the "home front" no longer has the metaphorical meaning of past wars but is literally true.
• Immigration: Terrorist Grounds for Exclusion and Removal of Aliens - Congressional Research Service, January 2010
  After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Immigration and Nationality Act was broadened to deny entry to representatives of groups that endorse terrorism, prominent individuals who endorse terrorism, and (in certain circumstances) the spouses and children of aliens who are removable on terrorism grounds. The INA also contains grounds for inadmissibility based on foreign policy concerns.
• Stopping Narco-Terrorism Requires Strong "Immigration Enforcement Tripod" - by Michael Cutler, Counterterrorism, March, 2009
  We have heard so much about the meltdown of Mexico at the hands of the drug cartels that have engaged in what can only be described as acts of terrorism to intimidate the citizens and the leaders of Mexico. The slaughter of thousands of Mexican and the torture and beheading of police officers, military and government officials are threatening the survival of that nation's government and the violence has been spilling over the border that is supposed to separate Mexico from the United States.
• A Human Weapon: The Nexus of Immigration, Security, and Terrorism - by Josh Hammer, Terrorism (undated)
  By placing migration in a security context, the state is now better able to pursue policies that will mitigate these ills; such as deploying the military to the border to reduce illegal immigration. Mobilization, increased legitimacy, power-consolidation, and the ability to pursue harsher policies can be quite beneficial to an administration that lacks in any or all of the four.
• Immigration and Terrorism - Congressional testimony by Steven A. Camarota, Center for Immigration Studies, October 2001
  Most Americans understand that our border is a critical tool for protecting America's national interests. Unfortunately a small but politically very influential portion of America's leadership has come to see our borders as simply an obstacle to be overcome by travelers and businesses. This attitude clearly has to change.
• Immigration: Terrorist Grounds for Exclusion of Aliens - US Government Accountability Office, May, 2005
  The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) spells out a strict set of admissions criteria and exclusion rules for all foreign nationals, whether coming permanently as immigrants (i.e., legal permanent residents) or temporarily as nonimmigrants. This report opens with an overview of the grounds for inadmissibility and summarizes key legislation enacted in recent years. The section on current law explains the legal definitions of "terrorist activity," "terrorist organization," and other security-related grounds for inadmissibility and analyzes the legal implications of these provisions.
• Terrorist Watch Lists Should Be Consolidated to Promote Better Integration and Sharing - U.S. Government Accountability Office, April, 2003
  The federal government's approach to using watch lists in performing its border security mission is decentralized and nonstandard. Further, the extent to which such sharing is accomplished electronically is constrained by fundamental differences in the watch lists' systems architecture (that is, the hardware, software, network, and data characteristics of the systems).
• Postscript 9/11: Media Coverage of Terrorism and Immigration - by William McGowan, CIS, April 2003
  Although 9/11 was first and foremost a failure of law enforcement, intelligence, and immigration procedures, the journalistic establishment also bears some responsibility for the disarmed condition in which we found ourselves on September 11. For years that establishment looked at the issue of immigration largely through ideological, rose-colored glasses, and gave minimal attention to many of the numerous holes in the state and federal immigration net that September 11 revealed.
• Immigration and Terrorism - by Philip Martin, The Social Contract, Fall 2001
  Immigration policy reforms will not prevent all terrorism, but they are a key part of any comprehensive approach to combat terrorism. Immigration policies and procedures should seek to identify, deter the entry of, and, to the extent possible, apprehend terrorists for criminal prosecution, in keeping with internationally recognized standards for protection of civil liberties and civil rights.
• Homeland Security Presidential Directive 2: Combating Terrorism Through Immigration Policies - Department of homeland Security, October 2001
  It is the policy of the United States to work aggressively to prevent aliens who engage in or support terrorist activity from entering the United States and to detain, prosecute, or deport any such aliens who are within the United States.
• Immigration and Terrorism: What Is to Be Done? - by Steven A. Camarota, Mark Krikorian, CIS, November 2001
  The front lines are at the border. Much has been written about how we are involved in a new kind of war. In this new kind of conflict, America's borders are a major theater of operations; the "home front" no longer has the metaphorical meaning of past wars but is literally true. This is because the primary weapons of our enemies are not tanks or aircraft carriers or even commercial airliners, but rather the terrorists themselves - thus keeping the terrorists out or apprehending them after they get in is going to be an indispensable element of victory. The simple fact is that if the terrorists can't enter the country, they won't be able to commit an attack on American soil.
• Immigration and Terrorism: Should the U.S. pare back immigration until it has full security measures in place against terrorism? - by Mark Krikorian, The San Diego Union-Tribune, November 2002
  The only realistic solution is to cut immigration across the board, regardless of the religion the immigrant claims to profess, and target our other security procedures at the smaller number of people arriving from abroad. Only in this way do we have any hope of limiting al-Qaeda's access to the United States.
• The Open Door: How Militant Islamic Terrorists Entered and Remained - by Steven A. Camarota, Center for Immigration Studies, May 2002
  There is probably no more important tool for preventing future attacks on U.S. soil than the nation's immigration system because the current terrorist threat comes almost exclusively from individuals who arrive from abroad. Foreign-born militant Islamic terrorists have used almost every conceivable means of entering the country. They have come as students, tourists, and business visitors. They have also been Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) and naturalized U.S. citizens. They have snuck across the border illegally, arrived as stowaways on ships, used false passports, and have been granted amnesty. Terrorists have even used America's humanitarian tradition of welcoming those seeking asylum.
• State and Local Authority to Enforce Immigration Law: A Unified Approach for Stopping Terrorists - by Kris W. Kobach, CIS, June 2004
  It has long been widely recognized that state and local police possess the inherent authority to arrest aliens who have violated criminal provisions of the INA. Once the arrest is made, the police officer must contact federal immigration authorities and transfer the alien into their custody within a reasonable period of time. Bear in mind that the power to arrest - and take temporary custody of - an immigration law violator is a subset of the broader power to "enforce." This is an important distinction between inherent arrest authority and 287(g) authority to enforce - which includes arresting, investigating, preparing a case, and all of the other powers exercised by BICE agents.
• The 287(g) Program: Protecting Home Towns and Homeland - by Jessica Vaughan, James R. Edwards Jr., Center for Immigration Studies, October 2009
  Only after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, did the Justice Department, where INS then resided, really get the 287(g) program going... The Ashcroft Justice Department viewed the 287(g) program as something beneficial in the fight against Islamic terrorism, as well as to rebuff the Latino gangs and smuggling rings that were pushing their illicit operations further and further inland.
• Immigration: S Visas for Criminal and Terrorist Informants - CRS Report for Congress, January, 2005
  Up to 200 criminal informants and 50 terrorist informants may be admitted annually.
• The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and Security Since 9/11 - by Edward Alden, Harper, 2008
  Alden has captured all of the issues pertaining to border security through interviews with senior government officials and immigrants that have fallen victim to an imperfect and at times dysfunctional system.
• The Quantitative Analysis of Terrorism and Immigration: An Initial Exploration - by Robert S. Leiken, Director of the Immigration and National Security Program at the Nixon Center, December 2006
  This article uses immigration and other biographical data to refute much of the conventional wisdom about the relationship between terrorism and immigration. We found a sizeable terrorist presence in Canada and a number of Canadian-based terrorists who have entered the U.S.
• Keeping Extremists Out: The History of Ideological Exclusion and the Need for Its Revival - by James R. Edwards Jr., Center for Immigration Studies, August 2005
  The higher the level of immigration, the more likely it is that individuals espousing hatred and violence toward America will gain entry. But whatever the level of immigration, excluding or removing noncitizens from the United States based on their promotion of such beliefs ("ideological exclusion") can help to protect the country. Historically such efforts have played this role, especially during the 20th century.
• The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001: A Summary of the Anti-Terrorism Law's Immigration-Related Provisions - by Rosemary Jenks, CIS, December 2001
  The USA PATRIOT Act treats immigration policy almost as an afterthought. The immigration provisions included in this law reflect two persistent - and increasingly problematic - perceptions shared by many of our elected representatives and Justice Department officials: first, that the Immigration and Naturalization Service's primary function is the admission of aliens into the United States, rather than the enforcement of the laws regulating such admissions; and second, that immigration policy is a political quagmire better left untouched.
• Drugs, Terrorism and Illegal Immigration - Threats Watch, January, 2007
  As expressed in Michael Cutler's post on the Counterterrorism Blog from January 3rd, the question is whether our government will ever be able to see the linkage between the worlds of illegal narcotics, illegal immigration and the expansion terrorism. Frankly, that linkage has been apparent for more than a decade.
• Enchilada Lite: A Post-9/11 Mexican Migration Agreement - by Robert S. Leiken, CIS, March 2002
  Several indices show that the Border Patrol has had some success in stemming the flow of illegals, but unfortunately "success" has exacted an unacceptable toll in Mexican lives. But were Mexico to place dangerous zones off-limits to migrants, together we could make the border safe and orderly. Mexican officials have indicated willingness to take these actions if their migrants can become legal in sufficient number.
• Modernizing America's Welcome Mat: The Implementation of US-VISIT - by Jessica Vaughan, Center for Immigration Studies, August 2005
  The United States Visitor Immigration Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program is one of the most important and ambitious border security programs ever undertaken. The basic objectives of US-VISIT are to use advanced biometric technology and enhanced look-out lists to improve the screening of foreign visitors, thereby helping deter and detect the entry of terrorists, criminals, immigration violators, and other dangerous or ineligible visitors.
• Taking Chances: The Folly of the Visa Lottery - by Mark Krikorian, Center for Immigration Studies, July 2004
  In 1986, Congress used this lack of immigrant diversity as a pretext for instituting an affirmative action program for white immigrants, in the form of a "diversity lottery." Devised by its sponsors (Irish-American members of Congress) as a subterfuge to amnesty Irish illegal aliens, the program continues even in the absence of any more Irish illegals - Ireland is now a country of immigration for the first time in centuries. Nonetheless, the lottery has taken on a life of its own.
• The Appearance of Security: REAL ID Final Regulations vs. PASS ID Act of 2009 - by Janice Kephart, Center for Immigration Studies, April 2009
  In essence, the PASS ID Act creates an atmosphere where an applicant's identity du jour can pass muster and be issued a legitimate drivers license/ID with a "unique symbol" indicating the issuing state has complied with federal DL/ID issuance standards. This ID would then have expanded use, enabling not only access to federal national security facilities, boarding commercial aircraft, or entering nuclear power plants, but also for use in establishing identity for employment with programs such as E-Verify.
• The War on Terror, Local Police, and Immigration Enforcement: A Curious Tale of Police Power in Post-9/11 America - by David A. Harris, University of Pittsburgh - School of Law, 2006
  In post-9/11 America, preventing the next terrorist attack ranks as law enforcement's top priority. This has led many advocates of stronger enforcement of U.S. immigration law to recast their efforts as anti-terrorism campaigns. As part of this endeavor, these advocates have called for local police to become involved in enforcing immigration law,