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DOJ Press Release: "Three Colombian Nationals Arrested, Alien Smuggling

By Michael Cutler

A press release forwarded to me by a colleague at the Counterterrorism Blog, Kelly Yip, reports Three Colombian Nationals Arrested, Charged in Alien Smuggling and Visa Fraud Scheme.

It is an extremely important news release because it details a success in the investigation of individuals who are charged with using a visa fraud scheme as a method of enabling aliens to illegally gain entry into the United States.

As you may know, most of the 9/11 terrorists and many other terror suspects used visa fraud as a means of entering our country in violation of our laws.

For most people the term "alien smuggler" conjures up the image of a person who operates along the borders of the United States, helping aliens to evade the inspections process at ports of entry and helping them to evade the Border Patrol. Most often, this image involves "coyotes" operating along the dangerous Mexican border.

In fact, there are many such alien smugglers who do ply their "trade" along our nation's borders, but there is another form of alien smuggling that has nothing to do with evading the Border Patrol.

I have often made the point that any state that has an international airport should also be thought of as a "border state."

If I was a criminal or a terrorist intent on entering the United States and given the choice of either entering the United States by entering Mexico with the intention of ultimately running the border that is supposed to separate the United States from Mexico, and in so doing, deal with pernicious alien smugglers, subject myself to the filthy conditions, deal with the dangerous desert climate and the accompanying rattle snakes, scorpions and other dangerous creatures; or entering the United States by obtaining a visa through fraud and enjoy an airplane flight and watch a movie and then stroll calmly through an airport terminal to a waiting cab or vehicle provided by a confederate, I would certainly opt for the latter.

Of course by entering with a visa, under US-VISIT my fingerprints would be recorded and my entry would be documented. But then I would not have to fear an encounter with immigration officials, because I was lawfully admitted into the United States, as long as I did not appear to violate the terms of my admission into the United States.

The DOJ press release indicates that during the past four years some 100 aliens succeeded in entering the United States by committing visa fraud. This begs the very obvious questions: "What are their true identities?" "Where are they now?" and the truly sobering question: "What are they doing inside the United States?"

There has been a tendency to portray smuggled aliens as "Victims of Human Trafficking." In point of fact there are aliens who are truly victims of human trafficking but in those cases we generally find, for example, young women who are coerced into entering the United States under duress or under false pretenses where they are brought to the United States to become prostitutes. Other aliens are brought here to become virtual indentured servants.

When aliens pay a smuggler to bring them to the United States in violation of law, another term is far more appropriate than "victim." These aliens are, in reality, "co-conspirators!" In recent years, the government has tended to regard smuggled aliens as victims and not as the criminal co-conspirators that most of them are. When an alien pays a smuggler to help him enter our country by evading the inspection process or by succeeding in being admitted into the United States via the inspections process at a port of entry by committing fraud, it is clear that the alien in question knows, full well, that he is intentionally violating our nation's laws and its borders.

On March 18, 2004 I was called to testify before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims on the topic:

"Pushing The Border Out on Alien Smuggling: New Tools and Intelligence Initiatives"

I was invited to testify before this hearing by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee who was, at that time, the Ranking Member of the subcommittee.

Transcript of that hearing

As a result of that hearing, Ms Jackson Lee proposed, through legislation, the creation of a fraud task force to combat alien smuggling that involved the use of fraud documents and fraud schemes. The case that is discussed in the press release makes the nature of fraud clear. It shows the level of sophistication used by the smugglers who made use of fraudulent supporting documents to create fictitious backgrounds for the aliens who were smuggled into the United States and the apparent ability of the smugglers to coach the aliens to enable them to pass the visa interview at the U.S. Embassy at Bogota. As you read about how this smuggling operation worked, allegedly enabling aliens from Colombia to enter the United States who would otherwise not be admitted into the United States, it is obvious that this sort of operation has serious national security implications.

What would prevent a terrorist, for example, from providing false supporting documents in order to create a fictitious identity for himself? As I have noted in previous commentaries, there is absolutely no way that you could sit across the table from a person you don't have reliable information about and by simply speaking to him be able to determine his identity or even his nationality.

A person who was a citizen, for example, of a Middle Eastern country could spend years in Latin America, develop Spanish language proficiency and then, through the use of false supporting documents, create an entirely false identity for himself including the false claim of being a citizen of Latin America.

What this press release should also call attention to, is the issue of just how prevalent the issue of visa fraud is. The fact that this operation has been put out of business is good news. The bad news is that I can assure you that there are many other such fraud rings engaged in alien smuggling that are still operating quite efficiently. The problem is that there are relatively few agents attempting to identify these operations and put together an investigation to put them out of business. These investigations can be labor-intensive.

Consider that the defendants who were identified in the press release had been doing business at least from July 15, 2005 until March 20, 2007 and are only now being prosecuted. Finally, the way that these 100 aliens were able to game the system to enter our country through the use of false supporting documents represents a virtual "play book" for the way that fraud could easily be perpetrated during the sort of massive "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" amnesty program being touted by the administration and members of both Houses of Congress.

With an absolute dearth of resources and political will, amnesty fraud and false documents would most likely be as common as snowflakes in a blizzard! The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups.

There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do - we must stop sitting on the sidelines!

The collective failure of We the People to get involved in making our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians. I implore you to get involved! We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.

This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue! You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!