NCJ Number
167836
Date Published
1996
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Current U.S. immigration practices are responsible for allowing the accused terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman to enter the United States and claim political asylum; a reform of immigration laws is needed to prevent terrorists from importing violence to the United States.
Abstract
Sheik Abdel-Rahman issued the "fatwa" or Islamic sanction for the 1981 assassination of Egypt's President Anwar Sadat, according to the Egyptian authorities. When he entered the United State in 1990 on a tourist visa, he was on the official U.S. terrorist list. The State Department, in the wake of the World Trade Center bombing, finally acknowledged that U.S. government officials twice acted in error in giving Abdel-Rahman permission to enter and remain in the United States. Because of a confused American legal system, which apparently puts the safety of American citizens last, a known advocate of terror and violence who was admitted to the United States illegally remains at large. The sheik is not an isolated case. Illegal aliens, many from the Third World, have been enabled to enter the United States and bring their violent politics to the Nation's shores. America's system of granting political asylum cannot be permitted to continue. A bill to remedy the situation has been introduced in Congress. It would require the immediate automation of all overseas visa operations and pin responsibility for issuing visas on the Foreign Service officials who issued them. This is a worthwhile reform, but much more is needed. Those who apply for asylum must not be permitted into the American society until their claims have been properly investigated and an affirmative determination made, and the process of endless appeals must be stopped.