1
Illegal Immigration: National Security Implications
Fredrick Swenson- October 7, 2011
Enforcement of United States immigration laws is an unavoidable topic in the current political
and security arenas. In this paper I intend to prove that the continued lax state of enforcement,
especially along the Southern border of the United States poses a serious security risk to our
country that could result in direct military or paramilitary operations against us by hostile nations
or their surrogates. I will present evidence that an attack or attacks of this kind are being planned
by radical Islamist groups whose goal is to implement a crippling strike on American soil.
Quotes from current and former government officials and other experts on counterterrorism and
drug trafficking will document the unholy alliance that has been forged between the drug cartels
and Islamist terrorist operatives. Unless and until this alliance is smashed, the smuggling routes
uncovered and eliminated, and the criminals and terrorists apprehended, we will live under the
threat of unprecedented destruction occurring within our borders. .
In October of 2004, the Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) began tracking and reporting the
arrests of terror suspects attempting to enter the U.S. illegally. Between that time and late 2005
when the Department of Homeland Security released these figures to Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-CO,
at least 51 terror suspects had been apprehended attempting to enter the country. Said Tancredo,
“If this isn’t a wake-up call to our lax border security, I don’t know what is.” And, “….what
scares me is the potentially hundreds of terrorists who make their way through our porous
borders every year and go undetected.” (51 terror suspects, 2005 para. 5)
1
2
In a frightening interview with the Washington Times, Michael Braun, retired assistant
administrator and Chief of Operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), stated,
“They (referring to the cartels and terrorists, specifically Hezbollah) work together. They rely on
the same shadow facilitators. One way or another, they are all connected.” (Carter, 2009, para.4).
Furthermore, Mr. Braun elaborated; Hezbollah “relies on the same criminal weapons smugglers,
document traffickers, and illicit transportation experts as the cartels.” (Carter, 2009, para. 3)
Another senior U.S. defense and counterterrorism expert contributed this chilling observation;
“If I needed to put somebody in place that is willing to blow themselves up to create a mass
casualty scenario, I’d most likely have to bring in a foreigner.” (Carter, 2009, para. 20) Of
course, that’s assuming they’re not already here, which brings up our next point.
Another gigantic problem affecting our ability to defend ourselves from the threat of terrorist
attacks lies in the case of individuals who have “slipped through the net”, so to speak, and
entered the country through what appears to be legitimate means, but which are really a cover
intended to put them in place to carry out the designs of their terrorist masters. Student visas,
originally intended for foreign students who could not obtain a quality education in their home
country, are a commonly exploited means of entry into the United States. Sometimes these visas
are procured by providing accurate information through legitimate channels in the country of
origin; the students are then accepted for study in America. What usually happens in these cases
is the visitor simply overstays the time limit allowed to remain in the country, and then drops out
of sight. In other cases, the entire application process is tainted; visas are procured by providing
fraudulent and inaccurate information, and overloaded systems on either or both sides of the
application and approval process fail to detect the discrepancies or there may be actual collusion
between the foreign government and the terrorist sponsors. Like in the overstayed visa scenario,
2
3
once the “sleeper” has successfully gained entry into the U.S., their next step is usually to
construct a new identity allowing them to melt away into American society and await the orders
to carry out attacks designed to create disruption, destruction and terror (Kephart, 2005 paras. 3-
6), (Timmerman, 2006 para. 12).
We are now confronted by hard data verifying the fact that tens of thousands of illegal aliens
originating from terrorism sponsoring states have gained entry into the U.S through both
methods. A report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2006 admitted that
there were over 45,000 individuals fitting into this category, and that it was not known how
many were ultimately removed from the country or simply defeated the Department’s oversight
capabilities. DHS, in a final admission of its inability to determine the whereabouts or force
compliance of these should-be-deportees, states that 85% will not comply even if deportation
orders are issued; they will simply drop out of sight. That leaves about 38,000 individuals from
terrorism sponsors like Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen moving around at
will, “under the radar” and free to plan and act as they wish. (Timmerman, 2006, paras. 5-8)
Critics of increased enforcement of immigration policies and laws argue that the motives of
enforcement advocates are tainted by xenophobia, racism, and hypocritical attitudes. They claim
that racial and ethnic tolerance is preached as a national virtue but in practice, we fall short of the
mark. And they may be right to an extent. But I believe this to be an extreme over-generalization
of the beliefs of the majority of Americans. Even if some Americans may be guilty of holding
prejudicial viewpoints regarding other ethnic groups and cultures, the point can also be made that
there may be as many or more who hold a 180 degree opposite viewpoint; one which appreciates
and supports diversity as the lifeblood of a (or at least once was) “melting pot society.” Were it
3
4
not for these pressing national security issues, I would be an advocate for much less restrictive
immigration laws. I have been to Mexico and seen the plight of the poor and victimized,
especially the residents of Juarez, which now bears the grim title of the most dangerous city in
the Western Hemisphere, if not the entire world. It is impossible not to understand and
sympathize with the compelling desire to escape the violence and poverty the majority of
Mexicans are forced to live with every day. Many have been reduced to being nothing more than
pawns on a chessboard also populated by U.S. and Mexican law enforcement and military
agencies who are locked in a deadly struggle with the drug cartels, and the ruthless “coyotes”
who promise new lives on the other side of the border, but who in many cases have proven to be
completely untrustworthy to live up to their end of the bargain. Many unfortunates have been
abandoned by their “saviors” and left to wander and often die in the deserts at the first hint of
detection and apprehension by authorities. One online source, describing the role of the “coyote”
in illegal immigration states, “… the process has become fraught with danger. Numerous
immigrants die trying to cross the desert each year, and while some are found, providing closure
for their families, others are simply never heard from again.” (Regarding Immigration, What is a
Coyote? n.d. para. 5)
Americans must decide if we are going to allow ourselves to be guided by evidence or by
emotions regarding the security of our borders. My vote is on the side of evidence and reason. A
successful attack on a major city or infrastructure element in our country would be a disaster
beyond comprehension. We must take every possible measure to ensure that it does not happen,
beginning with increased security efforts at our borders to prevent additional threats from
entering, along with a major surge in investigative efforts to locate and remove all unauthorized
persons already within our borders.
4
5
References
Carter, S. (2007, March 27). Exclusive: Hezbollah uses Mexican drug routes into U.S. The
Washington Times, May 27, 2009. Retrieved from
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/27/hezbollah-uses-mexican-drug-routes-into-
us
Fifty-one terror suspects nabbed trying to enter the U.S. illegally. (2005, December 15). World
Net Daily. Retrieved from http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?Article_ID=47914
Kephart, L. (2005, September) Immigration and Terrorism, Moving Beyond the 9/11Staff
Report on Terrorism. Center for Immigration Studies Paper 24, Executive Summary
Retrieved from www.cis.org/articles/2005/kephart/html
Regarding Immigration, What is A Coyote? (n.d.) Retrieved from
www.wisegeek.com/regarding-immigration-what-is-a-coyote.htm
Timmerman, K. (2006, June 8) Broken. FrontPageMagazine.Com Retrieved from
archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=4078
