High-Tech Antiterrorism
Defending the homeland with information technology.

by James R. Edwards Jr., coauthor of The Congressional Politics of Immigration Reform & an adjunct fellow with the Hudson Institute, is a principal in Olive Edwards Public Affairs, L.L.C.
October 31, 2001 8:05 a.m.

resident Bush has announced that his administration now will tighten up a loose immigration system, naming a Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force. The government will track foreign students, strengthen visa-application requirements, and step up deportation of likely foreign terrorists. These are steps in the right direction.

We know that at least 19 foreign terrorists could enter and live in the United States and, at the appointed time, unleash massive destruction using simple knives and average airplanes.

If information is power, we were caught powerless in the tragic attack launched Sept. 11. Some federal agencies had information indicating reasons to suspect some of the aliens who perpetrated these war crimes. But the fingerprint databases of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for instance, aren't meaningfully compatible.

Thus, agencies can't share information vital to our security in any effective way. High technology can easily solve this problem. Agents from the various law enforcement, immigration, and intelligence agencies must have access in real time to an integrated information system, if they are to use information as a powerful tool.

Second, we admit so many aliens on a temporary and a permanent basis — and then fail to track their whereabouts — that we have created a safe haven right here for those who would do us harm. In many cases, we have no clue who is here, what they are doing, or if they have overstayed a temporary visa.

The sheer numbers of foreigners among us is astounding. About 30 million immigrants live here. And we admit almost one million legal permanent immigrants each year. In addition, we now issue nearly 30 million temporary visas annually — to tourists, businesspeople, students, and the like. Fifteen of the 19 terrorists who hijacked the airplanes that crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania countryside apparently entered America with a legal business or tourist visa. One gained admission on a vocational student visa.

Millions more foreign visitors need no visa because of the visa-waiver program. This program amounts to a reciprocity agreement with certain countries, such as Canada. It allows easy entry for citizens of 29 participating countries.

And then there's illegal immigration. An estimated 8 million foreigners live in the United States illegally. About 40 percent of illegal aliens entered on a valid short-term visa and failed to leave when they were supposed to. This reportedly was the case with some of the hijackers, suspects, and material witnesses being questioned in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.

Estimates say that about 225,000 illegal aliens settle in the United States each year. Most fade into the woodwork, and INS policy has been to leave illegals, including visa overstays, alone.

The INS has been widely criticized as incompetently managed. However, in addition to mismanagement, it is an agency overwhelmed by sheer volume. It needs a moratorium to get a grip.

Third, our immigration system fails to track the aliens we let in. In the 1980s, Congress eliminated the long-standing requirement that aliens report their whereabouts annually at the Post Office. We have no national system to ensure that holders of student visas, for example, enroll and stay in the school for which we have admitted them.

Fourth, we must crack down on identity fraud and theft. Several of the terrorists apparently assumed other people's identities. The FBI has charged 20 people with fraudulently obtaining licenses for hauling hazardous materials. Some may be linked to the Sept. 11 terrorists.

High-tech offers the solution. We need to ensure that an alien applying for a visa is who he says he is. His identity should be encoded in a computer registry using biometric identifiers, including fingerprints, retina scans, and a photograph. And in order to enter the country, exit, transit, work, attend school, or rent an apartment, aliens should have to present a "smart card" with encoded information, including biometric identification and immigration status.

Already, green cards contain encoded identifying information. All nonimmigrants should have to have such high-tech visas, too. We could simply expand the required uses of these cards for aliens. We need to put high-tech to work to protect Americans from foreign terrorists among us. The president has now set us on that path.

Sept. 11 proved that the stakes are high. Not only would this safeguard America, it also would ensure that the foreigners here are more trustworthy and don't pose a threat. They would face greater scrutiny before gaining admission and while here, but taking greater care would mean fewer raised eyebrows by Americans recognizing a foreign accent or foreign garb.

We can't risk another catastrophe, and it's clear that four decades of mass immigration have sown the seeds for foreign enclaves of hate on our own soil. If our nation is to survive, America must put information technology to work for our national interest and protection.