November 16, 2005
Homeland Security: Red Alert
By Michelle
Malkin
Things are going from bad to worse at the Bush Department of
Homeland Security.
Do not be fooled by DHS chief Michael Chertoff's tough-sounding
rhetoric. While the Washington muckety-mucks pay lip service to
reforming the nation's broken detention and deportation system,
catch-and-release of immigration lawbreakers remains the order
of the day -- not only at the border, but all across the country's
interior.
The rudderless and overwhelmed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agency still does not have a new chief. Which is just as well
since Bush nominee Julie Myers (a nice Bush lawyer with virtually
no immigration or customs enforcement experience who happens to
be the niece of recently retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff Richard Myers/wife of Chertoff's chief of staff/former
employee of Chertoff and former colleague of outgoing ICE head
Michael Garcia) would provide as much leadership and morale-boosting
ability as a pair of junior high pom-poms. Her nomination is still
pending.
Meanwhile, as illegal immigration continues unabated, the White
House has seen fit to honor the chief of the Border Patrol, David
Aguilar, with a presidential "Meritorious Executive" award, which
comes with a cash bonus, for his outstanding performance. I kid
you not.
It's not much better over at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services, which administers all immigration benefits, from citizenship
applications to asylum requests to work permits, and is responsible
for overseeing all amnesty, student visa and marriage visa applicants.
The head of the agency, a nice banker named Eduardo Aguirre whose
only experience in immigration law was his own personal background
as a Cuban refugee, left in June after two years in office to
become ambassador to Spain. Aguirre's biography says that under
his "leadership," CIS "made significant and measurable progress
towards eliminating the immigration benefit application backlog,
improving customer service, and enhancing national security."
Mission accomplished? Don't make me laugh.
A new report by the DHS inspector general's office showed that
Aguirre's agency has failed miserably to crack down on the estimated
4 million to 8 million foreigners who have overstayed their visas
-- a supposed priority in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
which highlighted how lax enforcement against visa overstayers
has enabled many al Qaeda operatives to stay in the country.
Of the 301,046 leads the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency
received in 2004 on possible visa violators, the inspector general
found, only 4,164 were formally pursued, resulting in just 671
apprehensions -- few of which will actually result in deportation.
In these trying times for conservatives in Washington, you'd think
the last thing the Bush administration might do is send up yet
another crony/diversity nominee to fill a sensitive post. But
Aguirre's proposed replacement, Emilio T. Gonzalez, is just such
an embarrassment. He appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee
recently and was endorsed by two Florida Republicans -- Sen. Mel
Martinez and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who said Gonzalez would
"bring an understanding of national security and my own personal
immigration experience to bear."
Gonzalez is a Cuban refugee who arrived in the U.S. at the age
of 4, achieved the American dream, and served honorably in the
Army for 26 years. This makes him a remarkable success story.
It does not make him a good candidate to head the Citizenship
and Immigration Services agency in a time of war.
Scouring his resume, one finds no immigration law expertise whatsoever
outside his personal experience.
No indication that he has any clue about how to curtail rampant
asylum fraud.
No indication that he has any idea how to deal with those massive
numbers of visa overstayers and immigration benefit fraudsters,
let alone root out terrorist operatives among them.
And no indication that he would have the ability or willingness
to ensure that the millions of "guest workers" under Bush's proposed
amnesty plan would be competently screened, registered and deported
after their "guest" terms are up.
Zip. Nada. None.
This has been the Bush plan on immigration enforcement and border
security:
Recruit the clueless. Reward the failures. Those who abide by
the law lose. The con artists, the criminals, the ideological
border saboteurs and the terrorists win.
Copyright
2005 Creators Syndicate
