By J.M. Phelps (One News Now)
A former federal immigration agent is warning that policies being set in motion by the Biden administration will open the door for an enormous influx of immigrants that could harm the country in ways that are incomprehensible.
On Fox News this week, Chad Wolf – the former acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security – challenged the lawfulness of President Joe Biden’s executive actions on U.S. immigration policy. Wolf argued the policies are unlawful and a threat to border security.
Michael Cutler, a retired senior special agent with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), agrees, suggesting homeland security, the American economy, and more will be threatened by the number of questionable actions to restructure policies once strengthened by Donald Trump.
“America’s borders are its first line of defense and last line of defense against foreign nationals, or aliens, whose presence would be dangerous to the well-being of America and Americans,” says the Brooklyn native, who spent 30 years in the INS.
He directed One News Now to the preface of an official August 2004 report, 9/11 and Terrorist Travel – which begins with the following paragraph:
“It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following pages, that it must be made one.”
The former federal immigration agent continues, reading from page 98 of the report issued by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States:
“Terrorists in the 1990s, as well as the September 11 hijackers, needed to find a way to stay in or embed themselves in the United States if their operational plans were to come to fruition. As already discussed, this could be accomplished legally by marrying an American citizen, achieving temporary worker status, or applying for asylum after entering. In many cases, the act of filing for an immigration benefit sufficed to permit the alien to remain in the country until the petition was adjudicated. Terrorists were free to conduct surveillance, coordinate operations, obtain and receive funding, go to school and learn English, make contacts in the United States, acquire necessary materials, and execute an attack.”
Cutler holds firm to the findings of this 2004 report and what they reveal about U.S. immigration.
“The Trump travel ban on Muslim-majority countries did not include the most populous Muslim-majority countries of Indonesia, Pakistan or India,” he points out. Instead, Cutler explains, the countries on the list – Iran, for example – had a direct nexus to terrorism and the United States was unable to properly vet their citizens.
“This is not about discrimination but national security,” he emphasizes. “No rational person would board an airliner if they saw fellow passengers evading the TSA screening process, because the inspections process conducted at ports of entry serve a purpose to keep America and Americans safe.”
And he adds: “The border wall does not block anyone from entering the United States – it only helps to make certain that no one evades the inspections process.”
The retired INS official considers it incomprehensible that the President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of America’s armed forces would not want to keep America and Americans safe.
“Contrary to the lies of the open-borders immigration anarchists, immigration laws make absolutely no distinction about superficial characteristics, race, religion or ethnicity,” he notes.
“Title 8 United States Code Section 1182 enumerates the categories of aliens who are inadmissible, [and] this includes aliens who suffer from dangerous communicable diseases or severe mental illness,” Cutler explains. Criminals, spies, terrorists, human traffickers, drug smugglers, war criminals, and human rights violators are also to be excluded from the United States, as well as aliens who would displace American workers or drive down American wages, he adds.
Cutler admits he’s astounded that “in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic with many businesses permanently closed and with millions of Americans out of work, Biden wants to legalize 11 million illegal aliens – while in actuality the number is likely to be at least twice as large.”
According to the former special agent, studies conducted by several universities, including Yale University, estimated there were 22.1 million illegal aliens present in the United States in 2018.
“Huge as that number may be,” he adds, “it only scratches the surface of the ultimate number of immigrants who would benefit from the Biden plan.”
And that, Cutler argues, is a point that has been “carefully ignored.”
“When aliens are granted lawful status, they are immediately entitled to have all of the spouses and minor children join them in the United States,” he explains. “So, it is certainly reasonable to permit nuclear families of lawful immigrants to be united in the United States.”
That leads him to the conclusion that the influx of immigrants could turn out to be much greater:
“Given the fact that more than 25 million illegal aliens could be granted lawful status, this could ultimately result in more than 100 million minor immigrants entering the United States.”
J.M. Phelps is a counter-terrorism specialist, suicide bombing expert, and freelance journalist, focusing on national security for OneNewsNow. He is also editor and publisher of the website Lantern of Liberty.
Originally published by One News Now on Wednesday, January 27, 2021.
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