The Growing U.S. Security Threat of Illegal Aliens

By Paul Strand
Washington Sr. Correspondent

5/31/05

CBN.com – WASHINGTON -- Recent sweeps by the Department of Homeland Security have uncovered a major threat to national security.

Illegal aliens are working at some of America’s most important locations. Those include nuclear power plants, oil facilities, and even military operations.

It has been estimated that close to three million people enter the U.S. illegally each year, and you may be surprised where some of them are turning up. In the past month alone, 60 illegal aliens have been caught working at oil refineries, an oil pipeline, and even nuclear power plants.

Government agents also arrested nine illegals working on Navy surveillance aircraft.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, commented, "Why do we have people working in sensitive areas that are here illegally? Well, the answer is a systemic breakdown in communication between government agencies with sensitive jobs, and the agencies that are supposed to have the information to check on who the people are."

And the list goes on: 27 illegals arrested in North Carolina working on commercial jet airliners, and 66 arrested in Orlando while helping build a federal courthouse. And one man was detained in Philadelphia while working as the lead security guard at a government building. What is worse, some had lengthy criminal records.

Congressman Charles Norwood (R-GA) said, "We know for a fact that there are about 85,000 violent criminals. I mean, we know their names, we have their fingerprints - we just don't know where they are. They are in this country, and they snuck across our border illegally. And we need to get them out of this country."

A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement told CBN News that he has seen drug smugglers threaten illegal aliens working at airports that they would turn them in unless the illegals helped them smuggle narcotics onto planes. If blackmailing illegals works for drug smugglers, why could terrorists not blackmail them the same way - to help set the stage for a terrorist attack?

Stein commented, “My biggest concern is that the government is going to try to stop terrorism without controlling illegal immigration. If you continue to let the flow of illegal aliens run across our borders, you are playing Russian roulette - that is not safety and security for the American people.”

Forty-four thousand non-Mexican illegal aliens were arrested in the U.S last year, including a sizable number from Arab and Muslim countries. But many were released by immigration officials who did not have the detention space to hold them.

Critics say America's porous border with Mexico is the root cause of this problem. And they say that the recent Minuteman Project in Arizona showed that more boots on the ground means less illegal immigration.

Rep. Norwood remarked, “I think we just need to say we're going to get this done, and we're going to do whatever it takes to get this done. If that means active duty military, if that means national guard, if that means the home defense force, whatever it means, we're gonna pay, and put up the dollars, and get that border secure.