Issue 93 Halt Immigration?! June 6,2013

With the recent attacks on Boston a new call has gone out to better monitor people coming in and going out of the United States. While the issue of screening immigrants for the possibility that they are terrorists falls to both our intelligence agencies and the U.S. State department, we are lacking an effective means of tracking people already in the United States. Sure we know who is coming in, but we in the U.S. have no method of monitoring those who leave. As such there are about 2,000 people alone from middle eastern countries whom we lost track of. Am I saying that these people are likely to be terrorists? No I am not, but the fact is the Boston terrorists, as well as many other terrorists who have attacked the U.S. as well as other countries have entered legally. As disturbing as that sounds, it is more disturbing that the U.S. loses track of these guest immigrants who must leave when their time is up. As such, a suggestion from the more liberal arm of American politics (Bob Beckel, a Democratic strategist who has served as advisor the Presidents and presidential candidates alike), halt immigration from countries where the potential threats are coming from until we can locate those we have lost track from those countries.

The Good: The good part about all this is that we find these people who have fallen into the cracks of America's population. We have no idea what has happened to them and thus the State department can't help them if say they are being extorted or if some other harm has befallen them. But the most likely scenario is that they forgot to renew their visas to stay. Hopefully we will not find anyone who has been radicalized or is trying to radicalize others. This search to locate these people is not meant to be a witch hunt but a way to secure our borders (peace of mind) and insure that these 2,000 plus people are OK.

The Bad: The one bad part about this is that it is discriminatory. America's State department will be targeting people from specific countries that are categorically Muslim. Thoughts and ideas dating back to internment camps during World War II for the Japanese and Germans come to mind. But the goal is not to intern any of these individuals. The goal is to locate them, and if needed to send them back home. Sure some may be allowed to renew their visas as well, but this is entirely designed to see what happened to these individuals. To make it look less discriminatory, other groups either may be included or they can hop from one group to the next to track people whom they lost track of. This will primarily be showmanship to divert any accusations of racism.

Conclusion: It is sensible to halt immigration from countries for a period of time so as to get a better handle on who is here in the U.S. and who have simply gone home. Remember this idea is meant to be a temporary measure for approximately 2 years at which time people from those countries will then be allowed to visit once again. In those 2 years, hopefully, they will have found all the missing people that they lost track of. In addition, in that time a new tracking system that uses biometrics technology will be installed. Plus the system will track people who are both coming into the U.S. and will also monitor who leaves as well. So at all times we know if and when you have come in and left. Other measures will be added to track employment and education to better follow if you are meeting visa requirements to stay in the U.S. So basically "Big Brother" will be watching, but this may well aid in showing that you are a person of good standing if say you eventually want to become a U.S. citizen. Also, it may well show the skeptics and "true" racists that they have nothing to fear from the larger Muslim community and that the Muslim community out numbers the terrorists (hopefully giving them greater courage in discouraging and counteracting the radical Jihadists hiding amongst them). So I really do not mind this kind of solution to a problem, my only change would to totally halt all immigration and just focus on finding everyone who we have lost track of. Let’s face it; undocumented people are in effect breaking the law. So let’s find them, all of them, and judge their situations each as individuals so that we do the right thing.