New Tracking System Ignores Neighbor’s 200,000 Immigrants from Middle East
By Paul Sperry, WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON - Middle-Eastern immigrants in Canada who visit the U.S. will not be subject to registration under the new anti-terror tracking system, which goes into full effect this month, according to a more than 30-page federal document obtained by WorldNetDaily.
New immigration guidelines do not authorize border agents to fingerprint, photograph and monitor Canadians born in eight Mideast countries targeted for such special registration under the Justice Department’s new National Security Entry-Exit Registration System.
The updated federal rules are revealed in a Sept. 5 memo, titled “Standard Operating Procedures for Alien Registration,” written by Johnny N. Williams, chief of INS field operations, and distributed to INS regional directors. WorldNetDaily exclusively obtained a copy of the document, which updates the INS inspector’s field manual.
The countries on the new INS terrorist-risk list are Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, as WorldNetDaily first reported Sept. 19.
Immigration officers warn that excluding Canadians born in these Mideast countries from registration leaves a terrorist-friendly loophole in the system.
As U.S. immigration policy stands now, a young man born in Karachi, Pakistan, for example, could enter the U.S. with a Canadian passport and avoid any documentation whatever. Canadians need no visas to visit the U.S., and don’t even have to fill out the standard I-94 entry-exit form.
“If only the passport is considered, then all the smart ones who were born in high-risk countries will get in and out of the U.S. undocumented, as they acquire second-country passports in non-controlled Canada,” pointed out an INS inspector at a major U.S. airport.
Canada is home to more than 210,850 immigrants from the Middle East, according to the Population Reference Bureau in Washington.
Among them are Islamic terrorists, including ones linked to al-Qaida.
Two teenage Canadian brothers, whose father has been linked to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, are being held in Afghanistan after being captured fighting alongside al-Qaida forces, as WorldNetDaily first reported.
Some suspected terrorists recently entered the U.S. from Canada.
The FBI is investigating two Canadians - one from Pakistan, the other from Afghanistan - for possible links to terrorism.
The INS last month arrested Unsir Hafeez, a 24-year-old Canadian citizen originally from Pakistan, and Reza Zazai, a 25-year-old Canadian citizen originally from Afghanistan, for working illegally in the U.S.
The FBI found information on flight schools and regional and local airports on two computers in their sparsely furnished Baltimore apartment. Authorities also found literature written in Arabic mentioning jihad, or holy war, and Islam.
The Canadian government knows it has a terrorist problem, particularly vis-a-vis the U.S.
A recent report by Canada’s Special Senate Committee on Security and Intelligence called Canada a “venue of opportunity” for terrorist groups, syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin notes in her book, “Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores.”
“Our geographic location also makes Canada a favorite conduit for terrorists wishing to enter the United States, which remains the principal target for terrorist attacks worldwide,” the report said.