Interview w/ Former INS Sr. Special Agent, Michael W. Cutler: “We Need Immigration Enforcement—Not Immigration Reform”
Like most conservative Americans, I am frustrated and angry that the U.S. is being invaded by illegal immigrant children from South America and the continuing lack of regard for our borders. My heart not only aches for the children, but for my country as well; so I started wondering what someone would do with 30 years of experience with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
I reached out to the much sought after expert on the immigration policies of the United States, Mr. Michael W. Cutler. After graduating from the University of New York’s Brooklyn College in 1971 with a B.A. in Communications Arts and Sciences, he embarked upon a 30 year career with INS as an Immigration Inspector assigned to John F. Kennedy International Airport and in 1975 he become a Special Agent, rotating through every squad of the Investigations Branch. In 1988 he was assigned to the Unified Intelligence Division of the DEA in New York City and, in 1991, Michael rose to the position of Senior Special Agent assigned to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force where he remained for the balance of his career. He has testified as an Expert Witness at more than a dozen Congressional hearings on issues relating to the enforcement of immigration laws—most often on the relationship between immigration and national security and public safety—and furnished testimony to the 9/11 Commission. Michael has also provided expert witness testimony at state legislative hearings as well as at trials where immigration was at issue. He appears regularly on countless national radio and television programs including Fox News.
Michael will be a speaker, along with the former FBI counterterrorism expert and television commentator, John Guandolo, at the exciting 4th Annual National Security Briefing on July 12 in Corona, California, a program sponsored, in part, by the Corona chapter of ACT! for America, an organization founded by Islamist expert and Fox News contributor, Brigitte Gabriel.
LS: Thank you, Michael, for granting PolitiChicks.com an interview. There are numerous and unfortunate immigration issues the American public, including me, is trying to absorb right now and attempting to reach factual conclusions. It is frustrating at best. When addressing the issue of immigration, where is the best place to start?
Michael Cutler: The starting point for any discussion about immigration must be the findings and recommendations of the 9/11Commission. Yet there are precious few members of Congress in either the House of Representatives or the United States Senate from either party willing to even mention the fact that there was a 9/11 Commission- when the topic of immigration is raised.
Here are a couple of important quotes to put things in proper perspective:
The first paragraph of the preface of the The 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel begins with the following statement:
It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following pages, that it must be made one.
The 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel went on to detail numerous examples of instances where terrorists not only made use of visa and immigration benefit fraud to enter the United States, but to also embed themselves in the United States. Page 47 of this report noted:
Once terrorists had entered the United States, their next challenge was to find a way to remain here. Their primary method was immigration fraud. For example, Yousef and Ajaj concocted bogus political asylum stories when they arrived in the United States. Mahmoud Abouhalima, involved in both the World Trade Center and landmarks plots, received temporary residence under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers (SAW) program, after falsely claiming that he picked beans in Florida.
This paragraph is found on page 98 under the title “Immigration Benefits:”
“Terrorists in the 1990s, as well as the September 11 hijackers, needed to find a way to stay in or embed themselves in the United States if their operational plans were to come to fruition. As already discussed, this could be accomplished legally by marrying an American citizen, achieving temporary worker status, or applying for asylum after entering. In many cases, the act of filing for an immigration benefit sufficed to permit the alien to remain in the country until the petition was adjudicated. Terrorists were free to conduct surveillance, coordinate operations, obtain and receive funding, go to school and learn English, make contacts in the United States, acquire necessary materials, and execute an attack.”
LS: What are the duties of our armed forces and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)?
MC: Our armed forces are charged with securing America’s borders externally while theDHS is supposed to secure those same borders from within. The failures of the DHS to live up to its half of the equation are undermining the efforts, valor and incredible sacrifices of American’s men and women who serve in our military.
Any state that has an international airport has access to the thousands of miles of meandering U.S. coast line or lies along the northern or southern borders. Of course, Border States mean every state; so how in the world do you defend a country when your borders are wide open?
Border security is synonymous with national security and providing legal status to people who cannot prove their identity helps enable terrorists who can live in America “in plain sight.”
LS: As part of a proposed amnesty program, I think many of our readers will be surprised to learn that Senator Ted Cruz wants to bring in the world’s most “highly skilled” workers so they will contribute to skilled job creation and, therefore, create a sound economy. This is unfair to the millions of “highly skilled” Americans who have lost their jobs over the last eight years and many who are unable to find a job. Many are working part-time. Ted Cruz says that bringing illegals in and giving them amnesty will contribute to job creation and, therefore, create a sound economy. He likes the Gang of 8’s proposal, but says it doesn’t go far enough. I am a supporter of Senator Cruz, but I encourage our readers to do more research regarding Sen. Cruz’s stance on immigration.
MC: It is vital that American workers never be made to compete with foreign workers for their jobs. (This requirement is a component of the Immigration Laws that are not being enforced today.)
Ted Cruz is truly leading the charge against American STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) professionals. He has been consistently very specific about what he wants where H-1B visas are concerned. He provided an amendment to S.744 (Comprehensive Immigration Reform) referred to as “Cruz 5” which, incredibly, provides for a 500% increase in the cap for H-1B visas. His amendment would have increased the current annual cap of 65,000 such visas to an outrageous 325,000 high tech workers. The video of statements by Ted Cruz at a Senate hearing on this issue make his anti-American worker position abundantly clear. They tell us that America needs to import the “best and brightest” people from around the world to enable America to succeed.
There used to be a term to describe the world’s “Best & Brightest”—they were referred to as AMERICANS.
In point of fact, according to recent studies, Americans are still the world’s best and brightest. The only thing truly exceptional about foreign workers is the fact that they will work for exceptionally low wages under exceptionally adverse conditions.
The Labor Department has the gall to claim that the unemployment rate now stands at 6.3% while blithely ignoring that more than a third of all working age Americans have dropped out of the labor force. As the saying goes, “Figures don’t lie, but liars can figure.”
On May 16, 2014 Breitbart posted an article with a crystal clear title: Scholars Debunk Claims of High-Tech Workers Shortage, Question Industry’s ‘Free Pass’
On September 11, 2013 Newsmax published a report about a purportedly scheduled meeting to be conducted by Zuckerberg and Republican Congressional leaders to persuade them to support Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The article was titled: “Facebook’s Zuckerberg to Meet With GOP House Leaders”
LS: The new politically correct term for “illegal alien” is “undocumented worker.” What does the term “alien” mean?
MC: “Alien” is a term used to describe a foreign national present in the United States, yet those who are against its use were willing to use the term alien in concocting the DREAM Act which stands for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors.
There are three points to be made: The term “Alien” is not a pejorative. Legally, an alien is defined simply as being “Any person, not a citizen or national of the United States.” There is no insult in that definition—only clarity. Clarity is avoided by charlatans in order to deceive those who they seek to take advantage of. The term “Undocumented” should give us all “cause of pause.” This infers that the person either does not have official and reliable ID or does not want to provide it because he (she) knows his name is on terrorist watch lists or is a fugitive. In point of fact, aliens who evade the inspections process are un-inspected.
LS: There is a justified huge outcry from the American people about the flood of illegal alien children crossing our borders in huge numbers (250/day). Why?
MC: The current crisis found along our southwest border was carefully manufactured by the administration and the president must be made to answer one key question, “Why?”
Time and again we hear how our educational system needs to be improved. Now the administration, aided and abetted by politicians from both sides of the political aisle, is encouraging hundreds of thousands of young illegal aliens to run our borders. They are not being deported, but being re-united with their illegal alien relatives in the United States and will undoubtedly be enrolled in schools across the United States, flooding classrooms that are already overcrowded.
The world has heard and heeded the president’s message. A wave of illegal immigration has overwhelmed authorities, producing a completely preventable humanitarian crisis—and further diminishing the integrity of our national borders. And there is but one way for the crisis to end: for the president of the United States to declare to the world: “Do not attempt to come here illegally. Our border is no longer open. Our laws will be enforced.”
Overwhelming our resources impacts America and Americans across the country and undermines national security, public safety, public health, education, healthcare and a host of other issues. It also leads more desperate people from around the world to head for the United States.
LS: Willfully and purposefully bringing these children in and harboring them is a crime. Is this a correct statement?
MC: Indeed, what is taking place is a crime, apparently violating the provisions of Title 8 USC § 1324 – Bringing in and harboring certain aliens, a section of law that is comprehended within the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The law states that it is a felony to aid, abet, encourage or induce aliens to enter our country illegally or remain in our country illegally.
One of the sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is Title 8, United States Code, Section 1182 enumerates the categories of aliens who are to be excluded. Among these classes are aliens who suffer from dangerous communicable diseases or extreme mental illness. Additionally, convicted felons, human rights violators, war criminals, terrorists and spies are excluded as well as aliens who would seek unlawful employment or become public charges.
LS: Regarding these children, Sen. Cruz offered this on June 24:
“These are little boys, little girls that their parents are handing over to “coyotes,” and these “coyotes” are not well-meaning social workers trying to care for these kids. These are hardened, cold criminals. These are transnational, global, criminal cartels, and they are vicious, violent murderers. These children are being subjected to physical abuse, to sexual abuse; some of them are losing their lives. To have upwards of 90,000 kids in the “care,” so to speak, of violent drug dealers is tragic and heartbreaking. We just heard stories of little boys and little girls forced by these drug dealers to cut off the fingers and ears of other little boys and little girls in order to extort money from their families; and these children are told, “If you don’t cut off the fingers and ears of another child, you’ll be shot”….you can’t help but say, “We have to change the legal system that is encouraging what is happening. When the president of the United States prevents the Border Patrol from following the law and enforcing our immigration laws; when the president of the United States announces to the world, “Amnesty for those who have broken the law”—the consequences, people respond to that, and the way they’ve responded is by sending their children and handing their children over to drug dealers and vicious cartels. This is heartbreaking, but we need to act to stop it. We need to act to stop it, by #1, finally, finally, finally securing the borders and #2, by not offering amnesty which only incentivizes more and more and more people to violate the law and in this instance to endanger the safety and lives of their kids.”
I’ve heard you talk about “prosecutorial discretion.” What does that mean?
MC: When Congress repeatedly refused to go along with the DREAM Act, the president acted unilaterally invoking what he deemed “prosecutorial discretion” to provide hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who may be as old as 31 years of age with temporary lawful status, including employment authorization, if they claim to have entered the United States before their 16th birthday. I purposely used the term “if they claim” because these hundreds of thousands of un-inspected aliens will most likely not be interviewed nor will agents be made available to conduct investigations into the applications that they file. This is a virtual open invitation to fraud.
On June 17, 2012, Fox News Latino published my op-ed “Obama Invokes Prosecutorial Discretion to Circumvent Constitution and Congress,” in which I raised my concerns about this ill-conceived program initiated by the president to do an end-run around Congress, the legislative process and, indeed, the Constitution.
LS: Is there a list of aliens who might be prevented from entering our country?
MC: Our immigration laws do not make any distinctions that involve race, religion or ethnicity- only to keep out aliens such as criminals and terrorists who pose a threat to the safety and well-being of America and Americans. Title 8, U.S.C. § 1182 provides a list of the classes of aliens to be prevented from entering the United States.
LS: Wrap this up for us.
MC: In his historic speech before the 3rd Army on May 31, 1944, General George S. Patton said, on the strategy of holding a position: “We’re not holding anything; we’ll let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly, and we’re not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy.”
Pushing back against Comprehensive Immigration Reform is the same as holding position. The time has come for us to advance by demanding that our borders be made truly secure and our immigration laws be effectively administered and enforced.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform violates all of the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, but no one is willing to even consider how the lack of real border security and the lack of real integrity to the various components of the immigration system imperil national security and public safety.
Immigration is not a single issue, but a singular issue that impacts nearly every challenge and threat confronting the United States today. Simply stated, the immigration laws were enacted to save lives and protect the jobs of American workers.
Please visit Michael Cutler’s website: http://michaelcutler.net/ On Friday evenings from 7:00 PM until 8:00 PM Eastern Time, he hosts a show, The Michael Cutler Hour on the USA Talk Radio Network on Blog Talk Radio. Call in number: 310-982-4145. Archived shows can be found here: USA Talk Radio
