DACA compromise would undermine national security.

The partial shut-down of the federal government grinds on while the Democrats, poised to assume the majority in the House of Representatives, refuse to fund a wall to secure the dangerous U.S./Mexican border against the un-inspected entry of people and cargo into the United States.

I am compelled to reiterate a point I have made repeatedly in past articles, that a wall along that problematic border would not stop a single person from entering the United States but would force all who seek to enter the United States to undergo the statutorily required inspections and vetting process that is conducted at ports of entry and to record entries or attempted entries by aliens for national security and related purposes.

President Trump has refused to sign off on a budget that does not fund the wall that would protect our nation. He has consequently opted to shut down non-essential elements of the federal government.

During the failed negotiations President Trump, in confronting a belligerent and recalcitrant Chuck Schumer, said that he would be proud to shut down the government if he could not get the funding for the wall. Schumer accused the President of throwing a temper tantrum. If anyone was throwing anything, I would accuse Mr. Schumer and his cohorts of throwing America and Americans under the proverbial bus. What has never been asked of Schumer, Pelosi and the other Democrats is why they would not want a wall to prevent the un-inspected entry into the United States, of illegal aliens including criminals, fugitives, terrorists, gang members and massive quantities of narcotics and other contraband.

As I noted above, the purpose of the wall is not to seal off the United States from Mexico but to simply prevent aliens and contraband from entering the United States without inspection. That inspections process is essential to vet aliens to prevent the entry of those whose presence in the United States would be problematic and/or dangerous to America and Americans. In point of fact, the decisions of the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) Inspectors who conduct those inspections are guided by 8 U.S. Code § 1182, a section of law comprehended within the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), that enumerates the categories of aliens who are not to be admitted into the United States. Among the categories of aliens who are to be excluded are those suffering from dangerous contagious diseases or suffer from severe mental illness. Additionally, aliens who were previously deported, are criminals, terrorists, spies, fugitives from justice, human rights violators, war criminals, human traffickers, and aliens who would likely become public charges or take jobs of Americans.

There is absolutely no distinction made as to race, religion or ethnicity of aliens.

The Democrats insist on using technology to secure the border. Trump properly observed that sometimes old solutions are the best and noted that wheels have been around for many, many years. Indeed, hi-tech “solutions” to border security would not stop any illegal aliens from entering the United States in the first place but only, hopefully, detect aliens after they penetrated our borders. Once in the United States--aided and abetted by judges who have consistently over-reached their authority—these illegal aliens would undoubtedly obstruct efforts to remove [deport] them. This would inspire more aliens, from countries around the world, to head for the United States where their sheer numbers would continue to increasingly overwhelm an immigration system that lacks the resources to effectively deal with the tens of millions of illegal aliens who are already present in the United States, in violation of our laws that were enacted to prevent the entry of aliens whose presence would be problematic or dangerous to America and Americans. I focused on this in a recent article, Why Trump’s Wall Is A Must, noting that a virtual fence would stop virtually no one!

One of the issues that has been noted in the news is the idea that perhaps a “compromise” could be reached between the administration and the Democrats to include a massive amnesty program under the aegis of DACA (Deferred Action- Childhood Arrival). This would be nothing short of catastrophic, compromising national security for decades to come.

Let’s briefly review the sordid history of DACA. DACA was a program concocted by the Obama administration to overcome the failure of Congress to pass a massive amnesty program known as Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the follow-up attempt to pass a massive amnesty program known as “The DREAM Act.” (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act). It is noteworthy that for all of the howls that typically accompany any use of the term “Alien” to describe non-citizens present in the United States, the term Alien became incredibly palatable when it was needed to create legislation to legalize millions of heretofore illegal aliens! The concept behind the DREAM Act and DACA was to exploit the well-known empathy and compassion Americans have for children. Both of those efforts were sold as means of helping children who were brought to the United States by their parents. Ostensibly these children had no control over their parents’ actions and thus became victims. In order to qualify, these “young aliens” had to claim that they were brought to the United States illegally prior to their 16th birthdays but, under the DREAM Act could apply to participate in that program provided that they filed such an application before they became 35 years of age.

DACA which was enacted by Obama’s “magic pen” via executive order (executive caveat) in June 2012 would have required that the aliens made their applications prior to their 32nd birthdays. There would be millions of illegal aliens who could claim to have entered as children but inasmuch as they had entered without inspection, there would be no way to determine if any aliens had entered the United States 20 years ago or 20 days ago. In fact, aliens who have not yet left for the United States could make their way here and falsely claim to have been here for decades. There would be no way to interview all of these aliens, let alone conduct field investigations. This would literally rule out the red carpet for immigration fraudsters who could lie through their teeth and get away with it. These lies would constitute immigration fraud.

On June 17, 2012 Fox News published my Op-Ed in which I stated that what President Obama had referred to as an exercise of “prosecutorial discretion” should have been referred to as “prosecutorial deception.” In August 2018 I wrote an article, The Daca Sword Of Damocles that cited an excerpt from the official report, 9/11 and Terrorist Travel that focused on immigration-related vulnerabilities that the terrorists had exploited. Immigration fraud was determined to be of extreme significance. Here are two significant quotes from the report:

“Once terrorists had entered the United States, their next challenge was to find a way to remain here. Their primary method was immigration fraud. For example, Yousef and Ajaj concocted bogus political asylum stories when they arrived in the United States. Mahmoud Abouhalima, involved in both the World Trade Center and landmarks plots, received temporary residence under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers (SAW) program, after falsely claiming that he picked beans in Florida.” “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.”

Immigration fraud would permeate any such massive amnesty program. As noted above, immigration fraud was the key method of entry and embedding for terrorists and not just where the 19 hijacker/terrorists who carried out the terror attacks on September 11, 2001 but in many terror attacks as well. The immigration system lacks the capability to carry out its current missions. Adding millions of additional applications to the overwhelmed system at USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), which already adjudicates more than 6 million applications annually, would cause the beleaguered bureaucracy to implode. In the wake of the terror attacks of 9/11, our leaders constantly reminded us that in order to be successful, the terrorists need to “get it right” only once; while for America to be safe, our officials must “get it right” 100% of the time. In simple terms, every time an alien enters the United States and every time an application for an immigration benefit is filed, terrorists are provided with that one opportunity that they are eager to achieve to launch a deadly terror attack.

On June 22, 2007 the Washington Times published my Op-Ed Immigration bill a ‘No Go in which I voiced my concerns about Comprehensive Immigration Reform which are the same today about DACA. In that Op-Ed, nearly a dozen years ago, I suggested that a new and far more honest name be applied to that legislation. That title would work just fine for DACA today. DACA should be renamed the “Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act!”