Visa Waiver Program:
A National Security Nightmare
Saturday, March 1, 2008
By Michael Cutler
An article
appears on-line at CNN. The author of the article, Mike M. Ahlers
is a producer at CNN who covers the Homeland Security beat for them.
He and I have had numerous conversations about many of the issues
concerning the nexus between immigration and national security and
so I was pleased that he called me a couple of days ago to discuss
the Visa Waiver Program and the outrageous position that none other
than Tom Ridge, the first Secretary of Homeland Security has taken
on this fatally flawed program.
Incredibly he is favoring an expansion of this extremely dangerous program at
a time when it should be ended altogether! I find it interesting that
the executive from this consortium of travel organizations should
deny countries membership in this exclusive "club" by dropping those
countries that have citizens who fail to depart the United States
when they are required to do so. US VISIT is a program that the United
States has invested heavily in. From what I have read, it has cost
our nation more than one billion dollars. Yet US VISIT is unable to
track the departure of alien visitors. Simply stated, our government
does not know if aliens fail to depart the United States before their
authorized period of admission expires even though the 911 Commission
deemed this to be a critical issue!
You may find it interesting to note that US VISIT is being managed by
an organization known as Accenture. Accenture is a spin-off of the
Arthur Andersen accounting firm that figured prominently in the ENRON
scandal a few years ago. You may also be interested to know that the
Accenture division that is running US VISIT was headquartered in Hamilton,
Bermuda.
On March 11, 2006 I testified before the Congressional Subcommittee on
Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on International Relations
of the House of Representatives at a hearing entitled, "VISA OVERSTAYS:
CAN WE BAR THE TERRORIST DOOR?"
I would urge you to read
the transcript of that hearing.
Let me start out by explaining what the Visa Waiver Program is and why
I am absolutely opposed to it.
The Visa Waiver Program permits aliens from 27 nations to seek to enter
the United States without first applying for a visa. A visa is generally
a stamp that is placed in the passport of an arriving alien that has
a number of security features built into it to make it difficult to
be counterfeited. The visa is an indication to the Customs and Border
Protection inspector at a port of entry that the arriving alien has
been interviewed at an American embassy or consulate and has satisfied
the U.S. consular official overseas that he (she) meets minimal standards
to be given the visa. It is important to note that the visa is not
a guarantee of admission, but represents the first step in the process
for an alien to seek to lawfully enter the United States. The actual
decision to admit an alien into the United States is made by a CBP
inspector.
The countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program are:
Andorra, Iceland, Norway, Australia, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Italy, San
Marino, Belgium, Japan, Singapore, Brunei, Liechtenstein, Slovenia,
Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain, Finland, Monaco, Sweden, France, the Netherlands,
Switzerland, Germany, New Zealand, United Kingdom
The visa requirement is not always done as thoroughly as I believe it
should be, but it does offer five distinct advantages that are worth
considering.
1. By requiring visas of aliens who seek to enter the United States,
this process helps to screen potential passengers on airliners that
are destined to the United States. Richard Reid, the so-called "Shoe
Bomber" was able to board an airliner to come to the United States
although he had no intentions of entering the United States, his apparent
goal was to blow up the airliner and its many passengers somewhere
over the depths of the Atlantic Ocean by detonating explosives he
had concealed in his shoes. Because he is a subject of Great Britain,
a country that participates in the Visa Waiver Program, Reid did not
obtain a visa before he boarded that airliner.
2. The CBP inspectors are supposed to make a decision in one minute or
less as to the admissibility of an alien seeking to enter the United
States. The visa requirement helps them to do a more effective job.
Their's is a tough job I can certainly relate to, I began my career
at the former INS as an immigration inspector at John F. Kennedy International
Airport in New York and worked there for 4 years before I became a
special agent.
3. As was noted by Mike Ahlers who quoted me in the article I attached
below, the application for a nonimmigrant visa contains roughly 40
questions that could provide invaluable information to law enforcement
officials should that alien become the target of a criminal or terrorist
investigation. The information could provide intelligence as well
as investigative leads. You can check out the application for a nonimmigrant
(tourist) visa by clicking
on this link.
4. If an alien applicant lies on the application for a visa that lie
is called "visa fraud." The maximum penalty for visa fraud starts
out at 10 years in jail for those who commit this crime simply in
order to come to the United States, ostensibly to seek unlawful employment
or other such purpose. The penalty increases to 15 years in jail for
those aliens who obtain a visa to commit a felony. For aliens who
engage in visa fraud to traffic in narcotics or commit another narcotics-related
crime, the maximum jail sentence that can be imposes rises to 20 years.
Finally, when an alien can be proven to have engaged in visa fraud
in furtherance of terrorism, the maximum penalty climbs to 25 years
in prison. It is important to note that while it may be difficult
to prove that an individual is a terrorist, it is usually relatively
simple to prove that the alien has committed visa fraud when there
is fraud involved in the visa application. Indeed, terror suspects
are often charged with visa fraud.
5. The charge of visa fraud can also be extremely helpful to law enforcement
authorities who want to take a bad guy off the street without tipping
their hand to the other members of a criminal conspiracy or terrorism
conspiracy that the individual arrested was being arrested for his
involvement in terrorism or a criminal organization.
Under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program, none of the significant benefits
to law enforcement or national security apply.
Tom Ridge should know better, but it is apparent that for him, the issue
is money. The money he earns by selling his prior title as the head
of the Department of Homeland Surrender as I have come to sarcastically
refer to DHS! Should there be another terrorist attack it would not
surprise me if at least some of the participants will be found to
have entered the United States under this insane program. Then he
would be able to think of his wages as "blood money!"
The visa process is no more difficult than is the requirement to obtain
a driver's license. For the well established international traveler
who seeks to come to the United States on a routine basis, visas can
be issued that are valid for ten years. This would mean that these
travelers would only need to apply for a visa to enable them to come
to the United States once every ten years. This is, in my humble opinion,
a small inconvenience that would make airline travel safer and to
attempt to prevent the next terrorist attack.
When I was an inspector at JFK International Airport all arriving aliens
were required to have valid visas in their passports before they could
board airliners or be admitted into the United States. The only exception
were citizens of Canada, citizens of Bermuda and British citizens
who had "Landed Immigrant" status in Canada.
In the name of national security, American citizens need to remove their
shoes before boarding airliners because of Richard Reid, whom I discussed
above. We are now required to get to airports two hours before flight
time whereas we used to only need to get to the airport 30 minutes
before flight time. We are making all sorts of adjustments in the
name of national security. The visa requirement can enhance airline
safety and national security at the same time. Yet the greedy executives
in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries apparently couldn't
care less.
About a year ago I had lunch with counsel and staffers from both sides of
the political aisle in Washington. They all agreed with me that the
Visa Waiver Program was a national security nightmare. One guy told
me that this program alone kept him awake at night! When I asked why
we were still doing this I was told that the greedy executives from
the hotel and travel industries wanted illegal aliens to change the
same sheets that the wealthy foreign travelers would ultimately sleep
on! They told me that I would be shocked at the amount of money being
spent by those industries on lobbyists to bring incredible pressure
to bear on our members of the House of Representatives and the United
States Senate.
In effect, we are permitting corporate executives to make national security
decisions for the United States!
Could you imagine General Eisenhower having to get corporate executives
to sign off on 'Operation Over-Lord" (the codename for what would
come to be known as D Day)?
It has been said that you cannot put a price on human life. Apparently
whoever coined that expression was wrong. Ask Mr. Ridge and the folks
in the travel industry. Each and every day, we get the best government
money can buy!
Michael W. Cutler graduated from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in
1971 with a B.A. in Communications Arts and Sciences. Mr. Cutler began
working for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in October
1971 when he entered on duty as an Immigration Inspector assigned to John
F. Kennedy International Airport. In August 1975 he became a Criminal
Investigator (Special Agent) for the INS at NYC.
He rotated through virtually every squad in the Investigations Branch. From 1988 until 1991
he was assigned as the INS representative to the Unified Intelligence
Division (UID) of the DEA in New York. In 1991 he was promoted to the
position of Senior Special Agent and was assigned to the Organized Crime,
Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) which required that he work with
members of other law enforcement agencies including the FBI, DEA, ATF,
U.S. Customs and local and state police as well as law enforcement organizations
of other countries including Israel, Canada, Great Britain and Japan,
to conduct investigations of aliens involved in major drug trafficking
organizations. He retired from the INS in February 2002, after a career
that spanned some 30 years.
Finally, Michael Cutler has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including
Lou Dobbs, Fox News, MSNBC and many other television and radio news-oriented
programs to discuss the enforcement of immigration laws.
E-Mail: mcutler007@aol.com
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