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Contributor:

Janice Kephart

Border Watchlisting a Decade after 9/11

The tedious process of watchlisting and making watchlists available to our frontline border and aviation operators is the most important tool our nation has to curtail attempted “legitimate” terrorist travel — meaning, those terrorists who seek to use our border and aviation system to enter the United States. The 9/11 Commission recommended significant changes to watchlisting, including merging 11 disparate watchlists into one base list. Today, this single list is simply termed the “Terrorist Watchlist.”

White House Embraces Administrative Amnesty After Failing to Get Congress on Board

Earlier this month, Cecelia Munoz, White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and formerly of the National Council of La Raza, where she openly embraced amnesty for illegal aliens, announced a groundbreaking turn of events: for the first time ever, the White House is usurping congressional constitutional authority to determine immigration law and policy. Not only is the White House granting amnesty, but they are also making sure that immigration law only applies to those illegal aliens convicted of serious crimes.

Napolitano Is Releasing a Border Strategy Tomorrow; Does Anyone Care?

Local TV in Arizona has reported that on Thursday, July 7, 2011, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, with Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin and Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, will be announcing the 2011 Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy in Nogales, Ariz. Unless the Attorney General is a surprise guest, I doubt this press conference will be more than the rhetoric the secretary herself complains about incessantly.

ICE's Mission Melt 5: Another No Confidence Vote for Morton

On June 23, 2011, the union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees issued a press release stating that ICE “Union leaders around the nation issued a unanimous no confidence vote in ICE Director John Morton on behalf of ICE officers, agents and employees.” The basis for the second no confidence vote in a year was another memo by ICE director John Morton, this time on prosecutorial discretion. The ICE Union is calling this memo a, “law enforcement nightmare developed by the Administration to win votes at the expense of sound and responsible law enforcement policy.”

9/11's Triumvirate of Terrorist Travel: al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Iran

The 9/11 Commission requested the federal government continue an investigation into the extent of involvement of Iran and its de facto terrorist wing, Hezbollah, in the support of Al Qaeda’s attacks on 9/11. Perhaps the biggest hole of buried information regarded Iran’s connection to 9/11. As the “terrorist travel” affiant in a case filed last week in New York City federal court on behalf of 9/11 families suing primarily al Qaeda and Iran, I am now personally convinced that indeed, al Qaeda did not act alone on 9/11.

House Hearing Lays Down Record for Ending the Visa Lottery

On April 5, I testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement on a bill that would eliminate the Diversity Visa lottery (DV) program. The hearing was specifically on the SAFE for America Act, and is sponsored by Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA), who has been seeking to do away with the visa lottery for years. This was the first time Goodlatte has received a legislative hearing on this bill.

REAL ID Implementation Embraced by 41 States: Driver's Licenses Still at Risk of Terrorist Abuse

While driver’s licenses and birth certificates remain a tool sought by terrorists to support jihad in the United States, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is still pushing for repeal of driver’s license and birth certificate standards supported by 9/11 Commission recommendations. Ironically, Secretary Napolitano continues to assail the REAL ID Act’s standards despite new statistics – still held tightly within DHS – showing that 41 states, plus D.C., have embraced REAL ID implementation even without DHS support or new monies.

80 Miles North of the Arizona Border, The Drugs Keep Coming

New footage from March 2, 2011, shows seven drug mules likely carrying about $50,000 worth of marijuana each. The trail where the motion-sensor hidden cameras were placed is 80 miles north of the border, due north of the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation, which has seen a marked increase in drug mule traffic since the creation of two “apprehension” zones on either side of the reservation’s boundaries.