Serious immigration enforcement

Heather MacDonald wants the Bush administration to get serious about enforcing the nation's immigration laws:

Nothing compromises our domestic defense against Islamic terrorism more than our failure to control who enters the country. The alien-smuggling trade is the "sea in which terrorists swim," explains David Cohen, the New York Police Department's deputy commissioner for intelligence and an ex-CIA expert on al-Qaeda.

Yet fear of offending the race and rights lobbies has trumped national security at DHS. This spring, for example, Asa Hutchinson – the department's undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security and now a contender for the top job – shut down a successful border-patrol initiative to catch illegal aliens.

A specially trained team had apprehended about 450 border trespassers in several Southern California cities. The Los Angeles Times, La Raza and every other advocacy group for illegal aliens protested that the arrests were racially motivated and that they were "scaring" illegal aliens.

The White House promptly called the team off, and Mr. Hutchinson appeased the race hustlers by denouncing the initiative as "racial profiling." He followed up with a memo to every U.S. immigration, border patrol and customs agent declaring that "preventing racial profiling is a priority mission of this department."

Shouldn't guarding public safety be the Department of Homeland Security's sole "priority mission"?

And it is not just our border with Mexico that is causing the problem:

The failure to interdict northern trespassers is particularly worrisome, since Canada is a proven springboard for terrorists. Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian caught at the Canadian border with 100 pounds of explosives destined for the Los Angeles airport in December 1999, ran an al-Qaeda cell in Montreal, despite having previously been ordered deported by the Canadian government. Two of the seven most wanted al-Qaeda members are naturalized Canadians.

And our "friends" in Mexico are no help:

Meanwhile, Mexico's government is providing cover for its illegal emigrants by furnishing them with ID – "matricula consular" cards – meant to let them open U.S. bank accounts or get U.S. driver's licenses. The FBI has denounced the matricula consular card as a security nightmare, since its background check is so superficial and it is so easily forged – yet federal authorities are allowing its use to spread across the country.

These authorities seem to believe they can give a pass to the hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who cross illegally every year and still strengthen the border against terrorists. But since the government forswears consideration of national origin, race, religion or ethnicity in law-enforcement activities, strict policing across the board becomes even more crucial for catching terrorists.

Without real enforcement, terrorists will make use of the infrastructure of illegality – such as corrupt Mexican officials. In 2003, authorities busted Mexico's consul in Lebanon for selling fake visas for up to $4,500. Her ring had smuggled about 300 Lebanese into the United States from Tijuana from 1999 to November 2002.