IMMIGRATION: Time for Realism.(Brief Article)

How do Muslim terrorists get into this country? Any way they can -- and American immigration policy, and the manner in which it is enforced, give them many ways.

A recent report by Steven A. Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies looks at 48 terrorists with al-Qaeda links who have operated in this country since 1993: the 9/11 hijackers, the first World Trade Center bombers, and others. Twelve were illegal aliens. Nineteen were visa holders, or asylum applicants. The rest were lawful permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Some of them broke immigration laws. Mohamed Atta, ringleader of the 9/11 attacks, should have been denied a visa under Section 214(b) of the immigration law, which says that young, unmarried individuals with little income and no strong ties to an overseas residence should not be given temporary visas -- a description that fit the vagabond Atta to a T.

Other terrorists have profited from our willingness to throw a party, with an open bar, for the world. Most liberals, and some conservatives, have no objection to naturalizing historically high numbers of immigrants. Neither does Osama bin Laden, according to one of his henchmen, Khalid Abu al Dahab (involved in the bombings of our embassies in Africa), who told an Arabic newspaper that bin Laden "emphasized the necessity of recruiting as many Muslims with American citizenship as possible into the organization."

The Center for Immigration Studies recommends tighter policies, and tighter enforcement of them, across the board: more, and more skeptical, consular agents abroad; more INS agents and border guards here; fingerprints and photographs scanned into the watchlists for terror suspects; a computerized system to track entries and exits of foreign visitors; and, most important, lower levels of immigration overall, to shrink the haystacks in which needles must be ...