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 resident
Bush has announced that his administration now will tighten up a
loose immigration system, naming a Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task
Force. The government will track foreign students, strengthen visa-application
requirements, and step up deportation of likely foreign terrorists.
These are steps in the right direction.
We know that
at least 19 foreign terrorists could enter and live in the United
States and, at the appointed time, unleash massive destruction using
simple knives and average airplanes.
If information
is power, we were caught powerless in the tragic attack launched
Sept. 11. Some federal agencies had information indicating reasons
to suspect some of the aliens who perpetrated these war crimes.
But the fingerprint databases of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for instance, aren't
meaningfully compatible.
Thus, agencies
can't share information vital to our security in any effective way.
High technology can easily solve this problem. Agents from the various
law enforcement, immigration, and intelligence agencies must have
access in real time to an integrated information system, if they
are to use information as a powerful tool.
Second, we
admit so many aliens on a temporary and a permanent basis —
and then fail to track their whereabouts — that we have created
a safe haven right here for those who would do us harm. In many
cases, we have no clue who is here, what they are doing, or if they
have overstayed a temporary visa.
The sheer numbers
of foreigners among us is astounding. About 30 million immigrants
live here. And we admit almost one million legal permanent immigrants
each year. In addition, we now issue nearly 30 million temporary
visas annually — to tourists, businesspeople, students, and
the like. Fifteen of the 19 terrorists who hijacked the airplanes
that crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the
Pennsylvania countryside apparently entered America with a legal
business or tourist visa. One gained admission on a vocational student
visa.
Millions more
foreign visitors need no visa because of the visa-waiver program.
This program amounts to a reciprocity agreement with certain countries,
such as Canada. It allows easy entry for citizens of 29 participating
countries.
And then there's
illegal immigration. An estimated 8 million foreigners live in the
United States illegally. About 40 percent of illegal aliens entered
on a valid short-term visa and failed to leave when they were supposed
to. This reportedly was the case with some of the hijackers, suspects,
and material witnesses being questioned in connection with the Sept.
11 attacks.
Estimates say
that about 225,000 illegal aliens settle in the United States each
year. Most fade into the woodwork, and INS policy has been to leave
illegals, including visa overstays, alone.
The INS has
been widely criticized as incompetently managed. However, in addition
to mismanagement, it is an agency overwhelmed by sheer volume. It
needs a moratorium to get a grip.
Third, our
immigration system fails to track the aliens we let in. In the 1980s,
Congress eliminated the long-standing requirement that aliens report
their whereabouts annually at the Post Office. We have no national
system to ensure that holders of student visas, for example, enroll
and stay in the school for which we have admitted them.
Fourth, we
must crack down on identity fraud and theft. Several of the terrorists
apparently assumed other people's identities. The FBI has charged
20 people with fraudulently obtaining licenses for hauling hazardous
materials. Some may be linked to the Sept. 11 terrorists.
High-tech offers
the solution. We need to ensure that an alien applying for a visa
is who he says he is. His identity should be encoded in a computer
registry using biometric identifiers, including fingerprints, retina
scans, and a photograph. And in order to enter the country, exit,
transit, work, attend school, or rent an apartment, aliens should
have to present a "smart card" with encoded information,
including biometric identification and immigration status.
Already, green
cards contain encoded identifying information. All nonimmigrants
should have to have such high-tech visas, too. We could simply expand
the required uses of these cards for aliens. We need to put high-tech
to work to protect Americans from foreign terrorists among us. The
president has now set us on that path.
Sept. 11 proved
that the stakes are high. Not only would this safeguard America,
it also would ensure that the foreigners here are more trustworthy
and don't pose a threat. They would face greater scrutiny before
gaining admission and while here, but taking greater care would
mean fewer raised eyebrows by Americans recognizing a foreign accent
or foreign garb.
We can't risk
another catastrophe, and it's clear that four decades of mass immigration
have sown the seeds for foreign enclaves of hate on our own soil.
If our nation is to survive, America must put information technology
to work for our national interest and protection.
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