Yet the bigger problem we face as a result of Obama’s willingness to leave the border porous isn’t political so much as practical. In other words, a border that isn’t secure translates into a country that isn’t secure either.

If you think I exaggerate the dangers of an open border then here’s a little experiment for you: Tonight, when you’re headed to bed, lock your front door but leave your back door wide open (and if you really want to emulate what Obama has done by advertising our open border, put a sign up in your backyard that says “back door open for your convenience.”)

I dare say not many among us could sleep well under such conditions, yet those are the exact same conditions Obama places our nation under when he turns a blind eye toward our faltering southern border in order to secure a few hundred thousand votes for the coming presidential election.

And more proof that Obama is just playing politics, as Congressman Smith put it, and thereby risking our safety, lies in the fact that he used his El Paso speech to call Congressional Republicans to pass the “Dream Act,” (which happens to be the very act conservatives rejected as amnesty when John McCain tried to shove it down our throats during the last few years of the George W. Bush presidency). The Dream Act is referred to as an amnesty plan because it gives people who came here illegally before they were sixteen years of age “the gift of permanent residency and eventually full-fledged citizenship” if they only pursue higher learning or join the armed forces.

Perhaps it sounds harsh to some, but the simple fact is that illegal immigrants are lawbreakers: they are lawbreakers because illegal. Any scheme that involves making them citizens without first punishing them for their crime is only amnesty by another name.

And such is the case with the Dream Act, and with Obama’s porous “hey, come on across, we’ll look the other way” border that’s supposed to separate the United States and Mexico.

If Obama wins in 2012 because he’s able to appease illegal immigrants by keeping our southern border open, we will all lose. It’s just that simple.

As the President stated, “More fundamentally, the presence of so many illegal immigrants makes a mockery of all those who are going through the process of immigrating legally. Indeed, after years of patchwork fixes and ill-conceived revisions, the legal immigration system is as broken as the borders.”

That’s right. The legal immigration system has grown into a boondoggle. For over 200 years people from around the globe have flocked to America in search of the American dream but over the last couple of decades, as millions of illegal aliens crossed the unsecured borders, the American dream was mired and crushed under the cruel weight of incompetent ever-changing government bureaucracy for countless legal immigrants. This actuality does not only negatively impact legal immigrants; it adversely affects national security and the economy. Americans should be concerned. So what did President Obama propose to fix this federal-government made disaster that metastasized under both Republican and Democrat rule? He didn’t say.

Nor did President Obama name the federal agency that is the broken legal immigration system. It’s the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), formerly the troubled Immigration Naturalization Services (INS).

What was strikingly absent from President Obama’s 4,101- word immigration reform speech was the fact that the USCIS is on the front lines of America’s defense. Indeed, something must be done.

So while MSNBC anchor Alex Witt “got a few chills” listening to President Obama’s “very powerful” speech on immigration. What is really chilling is there are terrorists and other assorted criminals exploiting America’s broken legal immigration system-the USCIS. As previously reported here, terrorists are applying for green cards, and, as reported here, radical Islamic terrorists use the broken immigration system to gain entry via phony marriages, and by exploiting student visas for example. Now that’s chilling.

In his speech, President Obama called the Arizona immigration law “ill-conceived” and “unenforceable.” He also said, “We can create a pathway for legal status that is fair, reflective of our values, and work,” but he declined to mention that it is the USCIS, home of the legal immigration system boondoggle that would process the millions of illegal aliens already in the U.S. Isn’t it “ill-conceived” to expect an agency would be able to process millions of illegal aliens capably when it cannot process legal immigrants competently? Apparently not.

In the real world, however, as Stephen Dinan at the Washington Times reported, Homeland Security Assistant Inspector General Frank Deffer recently told the House Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee, “Adding 12 million more people to the system would be the mother of all backlogs. Clearly to us the systems could not handle it now. It’s going to take a few years, so it’s something for Congress to consider…”

Meanwhile, playing politics with immigration prevails regardless of the realities on the ground. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), for instance, who advocates legalization, released what appears to be a political statement after President Obama’s speech, “The only way we can deliver the immigration solutions that a vast majority of Americans support is if Republicans stop obstructing… It’s time for Republicans… to stand up and lead,” the SEIU said, which was odd considering President Obama is not Republican and the House and Senate are controlled by Democrats.

In the meantime, with or without comprehensive immigration reform, beneath President Obama’s lofty rhetoric, he was accomplishing something that is paramount to all politicians—getting votes. First, by appeasing special interest groups by calling for the path to citizenship that Washington is ill-equipped to handle, and also when he said, “…we’ve stemmed the increases in naturalization fees…”

You see, President Obama was purposefully selective with his statement, because last month, as the New York Times reported, the Obama administration proposed an overall fee increase for legal immigration documents.

Alejandro Mayorkas, director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the fee increase was necessary because declining applications for documents in the past two years had lowered revenues and left his agency — which is 90 percent financed by fees — with a budget shortfall of about $200 million…

Except there was one particular fee which was exempt from this latest increase, and that’s naturalization; the Obama Administration has “kept the fee for immigrants to become United States citizens unchanged.”

James R. Edwards Jr., of the Center for Immigration Studies, wrote this about President Obama’s speech: “The President’s call-for-amnesty- speech… should raise one main question in every American’s mind: Whose side is President Obama on?

President Obama may have voted present in his immigration speech but his priorities were clear. He was looking out for himself.

Cross-posted at marinkapeschmann.com

I am also referring to the serious plight of legal immigrants who contributed to America’s national security, and who are facing deportation which for some of them means fighting for their life, like the author of the Son of Hamas, Mosab Hassan Yousef.

Will President Obama address this group or just the millions of illegals with a slap on the wrist and a fine?

Time will tell but in the meantime, let’s look at legal immigration to compare with whatever President Obama will propose tomorrow.

Following are some of the filing fees and applications required to legally immigrate.

First, legal immigration requires several steps. For instance, whether an immigrant is applying for permanent residence (Green Card) through employment-based, marriage or a relative petition, they must file and pay for the I-485 and I-485A –Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, and the Supplement A to Form I-485, Adjustment of Status Under Section 245(i) respectively, in addition to earlier fees required during the legal immigration process. The 485s are essentially the background checks before being granted the green card.

According to the latest USCIS fee schedule:

I-485:
• If under the age of 14 years and filing with the I-485 application of at least one parent. Cost $600.00.
• If under the age of 14 years NOT filing with the I-485 application of at least one parent. Cost $930.00
• All others: Cost $930.00
• An additional biometric services fee is required… costs on average $80.00

I-485A:
• If you are under the age of 17 years, or an unmarried son or daughter of a legalized alien and under the age of 21 years, or the spouse of a legalized alien under the Family Unity Program, there is no fee.
• If you are anybody else. Cost $1000.00

In addition to the cost of the I-485’s, below are examples of earlier mandatory fees and filings in the legal immigration process.

To file the I-129, the Petition for a Nonimmigrant worker, “for employers to petition for an alien to come to the United States temporarily to perform services or labor, or to receive training, as an H-1B, H-1C, H-2A, H-2B, H-3, L-1, O-1, O-2, P-1, P-1S, P-2, P-2S, P-3, P-3S, Q-1 or R-1 nonimmigrant worker” or to “request an extension of stay or change of status for an alien as an E-1, E-2, or TN nonimmigrant.” Cost $320.00

The I-129 petition form notes: “Certain employers filing H1-B or L-1 petitions must submit supplemental fees of $750.00 or $1,500.00 or a fraud prevention fee of $500.00.”

The I-129 should not be confused with the I-140, the Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker which costs $475.00, or the I-129F, the Petition for Alien Fiancé, costing $455.00. Then there is the I-687, the Application for Status as a Temporary, costing $710.00, not to be confused with the I-698, the Application to Adjust Status from Temporary to Permanent Resident (Under Section 245A of the INA) which costs $1,370.00 and so on. It is worth noting the fees change periodically.

Welcome to legal immigration in America, where following the laws means arcane bureaucracy where you can be stuck in a 20-year backlog (as Senator McCain noted during his failed Presidential bid), all the while hoping to dodge  the mindboggling incompetence at the USCIS, as previously reported here:

USCIS document production and mailing processes have raised concerns, as there is no mechanism by which to track delivery of USCIS documents to ensure receipt by the proper recipient. Last year, the Ombudsman highlighted some of the issues that may arise from delivery problems, including lost or stolen documents and unnecessary delays…

As the federal government continues to expand without meaningful internal reform, American’s will soon learn, what legal immigrants have known for years, how awful life can be at the mercy of a broken federal agency that broke under both Republican and Democrat rule.

So the big question for the President is: will the Administration reward the illegals or will the Administration finally take their job seriously, clean up the mess created by Washington, protect the borders and run a competent immigration agency?

<i>Just in</i>: Mosab Hassan Yousef has been granted asylum.

Cross-posted at marinkapeschmann.com

Last Thursday President Obama, whose commitment to comprehensive immigration reform is “unwavering,” met with Sen. Chuck Schumer D-N.Y. and Sen. Lindsey Graham R- S.C. to discuss a proposed bill to fix the broken immigration system. While the details remain somewhat elusive, according to the Los Angles Times:

“The basis of a bill would include a path toward citizenship for the 10.8 million people living in the U.S. illegally. Citizenship would not be granted lightly, the White House said. Undocumented workers would need to register, pay taxes and pay a penalty for violating the law. Failure to comply might result in deportation.”

With the recent failures of the government agencies on full display during the failed Christmas Day bombing of flight 253, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that would be responsible for processing millions of illegal aliens should a path to citizenship become law, deserves national security scrutiny. Like the State Department, the USCIS is on the front lines of America’s defence. As we now know, Hillary Clinton’s State Department revoked known al-Qaida member Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab’s, visa after he allegedly attempted to blow up an airliner with explosives in his underwear. The credit for thwarting the Christmas Day terrorist attack goes to the passengers and the crew of flight 253—not to government agencies. Under the Department of Homeland Security, the USCIS’ mission includes keeping nefarious people off U.S. soil while preserving America’s tradition as a nation of immigrants by processing lawful foreigners’ applications for visas, residency and citizenship.

According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report,  Immigration Benefits: Actions Needed to Address Vulnerabilities in Process for Granting Permanent Residency,  “Terrorists and other individuals posing a threat to national security have applied for lawful permanent residency–” the Green Card. The “available data” provided to the GAO found that the “USCIS background checks identified individuals who were (1) KSTs [Known or suspected terrorist], (2) associates of terrorists, (3) involved in providing material support to terrorists or terrorist organizations, and (4) agents of a foreign government involved in espionage. From March 2003 through December 1, 2007, FDNS [Office of Fraud Detection and National Security] received about 14,500 national security referrals for all application types. According to FDNS officials, about 10 percent involved individuals on TSC’s [Terrorist Screening Center ] watch list and the balance of these cases involved individuals who were not on the terrorist watch list, but whose background checks indicated other possible national security concerns, such as those having associations with known or suspected terrorists.” The same applies for the Federal Bureau of Investigations. As the GAO report documents: “In addition to identifying potential national security concerns from checking an alien’s name against watch lists in TECS [Treasury Enforcement Communications System], name checks against the FBI’s investigative files have uncovered individuals who raised national security concerns. We reviewed a random sample created by FDNS of FBI name check results provided to USCIS to ascertain the types of national security concerns identified during the name check process. We found that the FBI provided information to USCIS that these individuals:

• had associated with terrorist organizations, • were agents of foreign governments, • were involved in criminal activities, or • had engaged in espionage against the United Sates… While USCIS has some data on applicants with national security concerns, the data are limited because USCIS’s CLAIMS [Computer Linked Application Information Management System] was not designed to capture and routinely generate reports on the extent, type, and nature of national security threats posed by applicants. For example, this system does not routinely provide statistics on the visa categories used (e.g., family- or employment-based applications) and whether the immigration benefits were granted or denied. Such information could be useful to help identify the characteristics of applicants who could pose national security and terrorism-related concerns, and the avenues they may use to stay in the United States (emphasis mine).”

That said, to be fair, the GAO report noted that some action has been taken to improve the agencies performance, such as increasing staffing, but the report clearly states that the “USCIS has not completed actions necessary to address identified vulnerabilities.” A search of the GAO website shows this report, dated December 2008, is the most recent on this subject. In a side note, it is worth recalling that it was the Immigration Naturalization Services (now USCIS) that six months after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, approved two of the 9/11 hijackers, Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi for student visas. So while the Obama Administration and other lawmakers continue to push for a path to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens, they might want to check on the USCIS’ progress on addressing those GAO identified national security vulnerabilities before proceeding with any type of amnesty. The nation’s security may depend on it.

The next major immigration rally is set in Washington for March 21.

An obscure provision of federal law makes it possible for local and state officials to be trained as federal immigration agents. Section 287 (g)  of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act authorizes the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) to form partnerships that can be shaped to suit local priorities. Although this option has been available since 1996, most partnerships have been formed in just the past few years, according to ICE.

In an interview, McDonnell said he favors state-wide application of the 287 (g) program  because in his view it would compensate for the lack of resources available to ICE. While serving as attorney general, McDonnell worked with local governments in Prince William, Herndon and Rockingham counties to establish 287 (g) agreements. Tim Kaine, the state’s Democratic incumbent governor, has resisted using the program on a state-wide basis.

 “With the lack of resources and staff both Republican and Democratic congresses have given to ICE, I think the only way we were going to have reasonable enforcement in Virginia is for Virginia officials to do it on their own,” he said. “287 (g) allowed a legitimate and prudent way to address that and so I was concerned about having each county and each city out there by itself, which was why I asked the governor to, in at least the most serious crimes, allow Virginia state police officers to be trained as ICE agents and he repeatedly refused.”

Gov. Kaine has said previously that he is opposed to having state officials assume what should be federal burdens because this would subtract away from their primary responsibilities.

McDonnell is unmoved by this rationale because state and local officials already encounter illegal aliens in their daily routine. He expects this dynamic to continue, so long as the federal government fails to step up and meet its enforcement responsibilities.

“Regardless of where people stand on immigration policy and the idea of comprehensive reform, there is broad agreement concerning the detention and removal of the most dangerous offenders who have committed crimes beyond their immigration violations,” McDonnell said.

There is a precedent for cooperation between Virginia officials and federal agents that could give a boost to McDonnell’s 287g, should he prevail on Tuesday. ICE agents placed 171 convicted sex offenders into deportation proceedings after exchanging information with the Virginia state police as part of “Operation Cold Play” back in 2008.

As a result of working in close concert with local governments that took up the 287g program, McDonnell said he would be well positioned to help craft the right program as governor.

“We actually had a template for how those agreements must be drawn up so they would meet with the approval of ICE and I think that’s a tool that a governor has to have at his or her disposal that I would use,” he said.

The idea of allowing for states to have greater autonomy and dexterity in the implementation of public policy could have larger ramifications, if a Gov. McDonnell can invoke the 287g program, as a successful example of federalism in action.

“There is a lot of discussion now about federalism and the forgotten 10^th amendment and what the founders intended,” he said. “If the federal government would restrain itself and adhere to constitutional limits, we’d have a whole lot less national debt and we’d have more effective state governments that are closer to the people and listen better.”