Terrorism Border Control

RUNNING HEAD: TERRORISM AND BORDER CONTROL

Terrorism and Border Control
Jessica M. Morgan
Kaplan University
CM223-09
Professor Stephen Rogers
October 12, 2010

An astonishing 6,000 plus people lost their lives to the tragedy that befell our country on September 11, 2001. Those whose loved ones vanished and witnessed the horrific events on this day will forever have a black hole filled with emptiness in their hearts. Terrorism, the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes, the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization, and a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government, are exactly what this country endured on that fateful day (Random House
Another fact that most people are ignorant to, is the fact that a lot of individuals gain legal alien status to become a United States citizen and then become illegal after entering. The terrorists are foreigners, most or all of whom should not have been allowed to live in this country to begin with. The criminals who were convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the murders in front of the CIA headquarters in the same year, and the ones who plotted to bomb New York’s subway system were all Middle East aliens. They were more than likely granted a visa that should have never been issued or had overstayed a visa and should have immediately been deported from the country. Unfortunately, the door is wide open for illegal entrance to the country due to the issuing of visas by immigration counselors around the world. The state department has a laissez faire policy on issuing visas and approves 80 percent of the eight million applications every year. The department manual used by counselor officials states that “mere membership” in a recognized terrorist group, or even “advocacy of terrorism,” does not automatically disqualify a person from entering the United States (USCIS, 2010). Given this aspect, it appears that immigration officials do not even know how many people are in the United States on visas or how many have overstayed their status,
Individuals trafficked into and within the United States come from at least 65 countries with the greatest number coming from Vietnam, Mexico, and El Salvador (Austein, 2007). This issue contains its own realm of terrorism and border control issues. Thousands of illegal immigrants enter the United States by this method every day. More often than not, people are coerced or forced into crossing international borders. A lot of times, there are also those who are not even aware of the fact that they have been smuggled across borders until or if they are detained. Unknown to the immigrants whose ill-fated destiny is to become victims, when brought across the borders they are typically forced into prostitution and domestic servitude. This could be deemed as being held until illicit expenses are paid. Although human trafficking victims are often afforded the same right and benefits as refugees, is this what is in the best interest of the country? Given past events with terrorists training on United States property and utilizing resources to strike on American soil, how is it not known that some of these refugees may have been trained with the purpose of plotting the very same thing? Some of these people could end up being drug smugglers or Taliban activists! It seems very unlikely that anyone can provide a definitive response to the question. Every individual, victim or not, should