Joe Guzzardi
October 23, 2002

“Invasion” exposes the starring role played by the federal government in the 9/11 tragedies. By creating overly generous immigration and visa policies in 1965, then letting those policies slip into practices that had no system of checks and balances, the U.S. government made it easy for our enemies to infiltrate the country and execute their murderous plot.

“Invasion” is compelling and shocking. The uninitiated will learn how the immigration process has come completely unwound. In short, the U.S. has no defining immigration policy, no goals and no objectivity.

The U.S. Congress, taking its clue from the open-borders philosophy of President George W. Bush, bends in the wind as the special interest lobbyists push for more and more immigration.

The U.S. has allowed the concept of legal immigration to become almost quaint.

Why bother to apply formally to enter the country when you can either hop over the border or get one of 57—that’s right, 57—different visas and overstay them?

In 2000, notes Malkin, 10 million visitors arrived on short-term visas and countless millions arrived on student, religious, worker, fiancée and other miscellaneous visas. If you don’t feel like going home when your visa expires, don’t. No one will catch you. In fact, no one—not even the I.N.S.-- is likely to look for you.

Of the 48 Islamic militant terrorists involved in conspiracies against the U.S. in the last decade, only 16 entered legally on temporary visas as students, tourists or business executives. Another 17 were either U.S. citizens or permanent residents—a huge breakdown in itself. Others terrorists had political asylum applications in process or had been granted amnesty. The final tally: of 48 terrorists, 21 were in violation of U.S. immigration laws.

Even that horrible statistic is generous. As pointed out by Peter Brimelow in his VDare review of “Invasion” (www.vdare.com) 16 terrorists who were technically in the country “legally” on valid visas should not have gotten in. Since a visa applicant is required to truthfully state his purpose for coming to the U.S, those 16 submitted false documents. The real reason for coming to the U.S. was not to enroll in English as a second language courses but to fly airplanes into tall buildings.

Sadly, 9/11 wasn’t enough of a warning signal to those in charge of federal immigration policy. For the six-month period immediately following 9/11, the I.N.S. handed out another 50,000 tourist business and student visas to Middle Eastern residents exclusive of Israel. Another 140,000 visas were issued to al-Qaeda friendly nations like Pakistan, Yemen and Syria.

While much of Malkin’s book is correctly focused on the link between our useless immigration laws and domestic terrorism, one of the most compelling sections deals with the horrible crimes of Angel Resendiz, the “Railway Killer.”

While the mainstream media loves to write stories about illegal aliens like Jesus Apodaca, the Denver high-school student whose crusade for in-state tuition at the University of Colorado was endlessly promoted by the shilling of the Denver Post, much less is written about the likes of Resendiz.

To refresh your memory, for over a quarter of a century, Resendiz illegally crossed from Mexico into the U.S. During that time, police questioned Resendiz on no fewer than 25 occasions.

Resendiz was deported three times and “voluntarily returned” to Mexico at least four times (the only obvious choice for an illegal alien since if you don’t agree to return voluntarily, you will be arrested). In between Resendiz’ various crossings he murdered at least 12 people in the most violent manner. One of Resendiz preferred methods of killing was to seek out elderly women, rape them and them crush their skulls. Four such murders took place after the INS released Resendiz and while warrants were still outstanding for his arrest.

You cannot read “Invasion” without asking what it will take for the U.S to come to its senses regarding federal immigration policies. Obvious and incredibly, 9/11 was not enough of a jolt.

In the meantime, two recent headline stories show how deeply our lax immigration policies have threatened and divided the country.

Last month, three Hispanics were arrested in the quiet, rural farm community of Norfolk, NE.  They are the primary suspects in a botched bank robbery that killed five innocent people. Conclusion: the U.S. cannot have an open borders policy without allowing criminals to enter and stay in the country illegally. While some illegal aliens may come in search of jobs and opportunities, many do not.

And in another example of how immigration causes divisiveness, in Lewiston, Maine, 2,000 Somalis—with more on the way—have moved into town creating social chaos as the community scrambles to provide housing, schooling and welfare benefits to the new arrivals. When Mayor Laurier T. Raymond asked local Somali leaders to help slow down the migration to Lewiston, he was promptly denounced as a racist and xenophobe. And in short order, New York Times and Washington Post reporters appeared to declare the town anti-diversity. A similar crisis involving Somalis is brewing in Holyoake, Massachusetts.

Malkin offers several excellent solutions to our immigration woes. Among them are ending visas to residents of terrorist friendly countries, beefing up security at the airports and seaports, putting the military on our borders with Mexico and Canada, cleaning house at the I.N.S. and ending the ludicrous policy of granting citizenship to the children of illegal aliens.

Any one of them would be a great start to America’s most pressing social problem. All of  them would be an indication that the country is finally getting serious about protecting its citizens.

For a listing of Michelle Malkin’s media and personal appearance schedule, visit www.invasion.us.