Comments on Irish National Re-Entering US After Previous Deportation

Today’s commentary is predicated on an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) website posting that reported on the arrest of a citizen of Ireland, Kevin Barry McAuley, who is alleged to have been previously deported from the United States as an illegal alien and then, allegedly, reentered the United States without authority. Additional information about this case was posted on the website of a television news program, 9KXLH. Both postings are attached below.

The unlawful reentry of an alien who has been previously deported (removed) from the United States and has no felony convictions calls for a maximum of 2 years in prison for the violation of Title 8, United States Code, Section 1324.

The news release further noted that Mr. McAuley was found to have been in possession of live ammunition which, under federal law, deems it a felony for an illegal alien to possess ammunition- said offense carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

In doing a bit of research about Mr. McAuley’s case several interesting facts came to light.

The ICE news release noted that he had used multiple false identities, consider the following sentence:

“McAuley has at least five known aliases, including the following: Michael Gabriel Hoverty, Keith Christopher Morony, Kevin Loughrin, Steven Maloney and Patrick Roche.”

The news release did not, however, indicate when, where or how McAuley is believed to have entered the United States.

Furthermore the news release did not provide any additional details about the activities of the defendant in this case nor did it explain how law enforcement authorities came to notify ICE about his presence in the United States following his deportation other than to note that he was ultimately arrested by Enforcement and Removal Officers (ERO) of ICE in addition to members of the Denver Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service’s Fugitive Location and Apprehension Group.

It is significant that he has no apparent previous felony convictions because he is not being charged as an “Aggravated Felon” for his alleged crime of unauthorized reentry after deportation. I hate getting into the realm of speculation but I am intrigued by the circumstances that preceded his arrest and it is important to understand how the many components of the immigration system must work cooperatively to protect our nation and our citizens.

The fact that ammunition was discovered in his vehicle when he was arrested raises the possibility that Mr. McAuley was stopped by police doing a routine traffic stop and when it was determined that he had been previously deported that they called the Marshals Service and ICE because of a “hit” on his fingerprints that identified him as an alien who had been previously deported. This would also enable federal charges to be brought concerning the possession of ammunition by an illegal alien.

In attempting to gather more information about this case, I found an interesting news report on the 9KXLH television website

This leads to the possibility that he was stopped by members of the Denver Police Department and that they then reached out to the federal government- both ICE and the Marshals Service. If this is how he was, in fact, arrested by ICE it becomes apparent that having local law enforcement take immigration status into account during routine patrol duties and other routine police operations can be important component of efforts to effectively enforce our nation’s immigration laws.

It would certainly appear that McAuley had been involved with law enforcement previously, the news report noted that he had apparently swindled some homeowners and business owner out of money and had reportedly been the subject of a warrant issued by law enforcement authorities in Pennsylvania in conjunction with an alleged assault on a police officer in that state.

Going back to the fact that there was no mention of how McAuley had reentered the United States, there are two primary ways in which he could have entered the United States. He could have entered the United States by evading the inspections process. In the jargon of immigration such an entry is, appropriately enough, referred to by the initials “EWI” which stand for “Entry Without Inspection.”

This could be achieved by hiding in a vehicle that enters the United States where the other occupants of the vehicle are admitted into the United States and the illegal aliens emerges from his hiding place such as the trunk of a car or the back of a truck. A stowaway on a ship or airplane can also enter this way. Finally, an alien can simply run the border an enter through a point along the border that has no inspection facility.

The other way that he may have entered the United States is by providing a passport in a false name at a port of entry and then being admitted under that false name.

Inasmuch as the information provided in the ICE news release indicated that he had used multiple false names, it is entirely possible that this is how he may well have entered the United States by concealing his true name and his true immigration history.

Since he is a citizen of Ireland, one of many countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program, he would not have had to apply for or receive a visa prior to seeking to enter the United States. The process by which visas are issued can offer an important additional layer of security- a layer of security that does not exist where the Visa Waiver Program is concerned.

While it the law enforcement officers who were involved in this case did a good job, it would have been better for all concerned if Mr. McAuley had not been able to enter the United States in the first place. It is entirely possible that if he had been required to apply for and secure a visa before seeking to enter the United States that he would not have been able to acquire that visa and would have been prevented from entering the United States- presuming, of course, that this is how he managed to unlawfully reenter our country.

Here are important issues you should consider is the insane Visa Waiver Program which enables aliens from some 36 countries to enter the United States without first applying for and obtaining a visa for the United States. Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber attempted to destroy a U.S. bound airliner that was packed with passengers and crew members by detonating explosives he had hidden in his shoes. Richard Reid is a citizen of Great Britain and therefore he was not required to obtain a visa before flying to the United States to apply for admission into our country. Had he been required to obtain a visa, if there had been no Visa Waiver Program, it is likely he would never have secured the visa and would have not been permitted to board the airliner he intended to destroy. Our government officials now require citizens of the United States and all others who seek to board airliners to remove their shoes for inspection because of Mr. Reid- however, the vulnerability created by the Visa Waiver Program has not only been utterly ignored, but more countries have since been added to list of those countries whose citizens do not need to seek visas before traveling to the United States to apply for admission into our country even though other terrorists have also entered our country under the Visa Waiver Program!

You can review the State Department’s website for information about this wrongheaded and, indeed, treacherous Visa Waiver Program at:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html

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Currently, 36 countries participate in the Visa Waiver Program

Currently, 36 countries participate in the Visa Waiver Program, as shown below:

Some time ago I compiled a list of the ways in which the visa process can be helpful to law enforcement and bolster our nation’s efforts to prevent the entry of aliens whose presence on our country may prove harmful to our nation and our citizens.

Here is the list of the 6 benefits that the visa requirement provides to national security and that the Visa Waiver Program denies our nation:

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. Theirs 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. 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:

https://evisaforms.state.gov/ds156.asp

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. You can arrest the alien who commits visa fraud for that violation of law and not for other charges that might make it clear that the investigation underway is targeting a criminal or terrorist organization.

6. Even when an alien applies for a visa and his application is denied, the application he filed remains available for law enforcement and intelligence personnel to review to seek to glean intelligence from that application.

A couple of final thoughts-

Immigration law enforcement is not about race religion or ethnicity but is about the law and protecting our nation and our citizens from aliens whose presence in our country is problematic for our nation and/or our citizens. The open borders advocates (immigration anarchists) seem intent to portray the issue of immigration law enforcement as a matter of xenophobia and racism. This case illustrates that any alien of any, ethnicity, race, religion or nationality is subject to prosecution and deportation (removal) if he (she) violates our nation’s borders and immigration laws.

While it is unclear why Mr. McAuley was deported from the United States in the first place, if the information contained in the ICE news release and the news report that was posted online at the 9KXLH website is accurate, it is to our nation’s benefit that he now faces prosecution for violating the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that addresses the crime of illegal reentry after deportation and the laws that deal with illegal aliens who are found to be in possession of ammunition.

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

If our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!

We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.

My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.

The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.

If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

The practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.

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 make 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!

I believe our nation’s is greatly benefited by the rich diversity of our people which is why I could never imagine living anywhere except New York City, arguably the most diverse city in our nation if not, in fact, the world. However, my idea of diversity most certainly does not include members of MS-13, the Mexican drug cartels or members of other transnational gangs or members of al-Qaeda!

If our government’s failures to secure our nation’s borders and effectively enforce our immigration laws concern you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation! All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!

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!

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Lead, follow or get out of the way!

Additionally- this summer, on Friday afternoons from 4:00 PM until 5:00 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time, I will be filling in for Tom Garcia as the host on The USA Talk Radio Network’s excellent radio show, “The American Hour.”

I hope you will be joining me on Fridays this summer!

Here is the link for this program:

www.USARadioNetwork.com/tom.htm

Irish national arrested for re-entering the US after previous deportation, unlawfully possessing ammunition while illegally in the US

Michael Cutler, a former Senior INS Investigator, an expert witness in more than a dozen Congressional Hearings is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and an advisor to the ‘911 Families for a Secure America.’ He writes about the nexus between immigration and national security.