Democrats Order “Shields Down” in a Perilous Era
Setting the record straight about immigration law enforcement.
Imagine if somehow members of the United States Congress, from both political parties, could engage in meaningful negotiations to create a body of laws that would ensure public health, national security, public safety and the jobs and wages of American workers.
In point of fact, the body of laws that have those vital goals was actually enacted back in 1952 and is known as the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). It easily passed, garnering the votes cast by an overwhelming majority of the members of Congress from both political parties and still serves as the foundation of the current Immigration and Nationality Act that, over the years, has been amended but retains the underlying primary goal of protecting America and Americans.
It is hard to imagine that any politician would oppose the enforcement of our federal laws that puts the safety and well-being of Americans and our nation first and, as a nation important bonus, combats the scourge of human trafficking!
Today, however, the great majority of Democrats are adamantly opposed to the enforcement of the laws comprehended within the Immigration and Nationality Act and with their opposition it is clear they oppose the essential protections that those laws afford America and Americans and therefore oppose the arrest and removal of any aliens who violate the INA.
There are a number of ways that aliens may be subject to arrest and deportation (removal) from the United States. The one most commonly associated with aliens being subject to removal are aliens whose presence in the United States, from the outset of their entrance into the United States are aliens who evade the inspections process conducted by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Inspectors.
Aliens seek to evade the required vetting process for many reasons, but principally because they know that they fall within one or more classes of aliens who, under the Immigration and Nationality Act, are deemed “inadmissible.”
Contrary to the lies and propaganda spewed by duplicitous opponents of immigration law enforcement, our immigration laws are utterly and totally blind about such insignificant matters as race, religion and/or ethnicity- simply stated, our immigration laws were enacted to protect public, health, public safety, national security and the jobs and wages of American workers. This fundamental fact can be easily and readily verified by reviewing a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that enumerates the classes of alien who may not be admitted into the United States:
8 USC 1182: Inadmissible Aliens.
Incredibly, today with precious few exceptions, Democrat politicians on all levels of government are calling for the abolition of ICE (immigration and Customs Enforcement), the federal agency that has primary responsibility for the administration and enforcement of those vital immigration laws!
Many Democrat candidates have even made the abolition of ICE the center piece of their political campaigns, whether they seek the mayoralty of their cities, the governorship of their states or even in their campaigns to attain a seat in the House of Representatives or the United States Senate!
Some of these candidates even boast that they had proudly served the United States as members of the U.S. military and conspicuously provide photos and videos of themselves in their military uniforms in conjunction with their political campaigns!
Here is what they blithely and inexplicably ignore- the common shared mission of all branches of the United States military is to keep the enemies of our nation as far from our shores as possible. However, up close and in person that vital mission to defend our nation against its enemies falls to the valiant men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard, the United States Border Patrol and ICE.
My roughly 30 year career with the former INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) that began back in 1971 has provided me with insight and perspectives that have been largely missing from the national debate, in recent years, about the importance of secure borders and effective immigration law enforcement.
I noted that my perspectives have been missing from the national debate for a number of years because I had testified before more than 15 congressional hearings in the wake of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 and was actually invited by both sides of the political aisle. I also provided sworn testimony to the 9/11 Commission.
Back then, with the memory of the 9/11 terror attacks fresh in everyone’s minds just about everyone was on the proverbial “same page,” taking seriously the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
The official report, 9/11 and Terrorist Travel: Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States begins with this excerpt:
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.
Congress gave the Commission the mandate to study, evaluate, and report on “immigration, nonimmigrant visas and border security” as these areas relate to the events of 9/11.
The report went on to note:
Although there is evidence that some land and sea border entries (of terrorists) without inspection occurred, these conspirators mainly subverted the legal entry system by entering at airports.
In doing so, they relied on a wide variety of fraudulent documents, on aliases, and on government corruption. Because terrorist operations were not suicide missions in the early to mid-1990s, once in the U.S. terrorists and their supporters tried to get legal immigration status that would permit them to remain here, primarily by committing serial, or repeated, immigration fraud, by claiming political asylum, and by marrying Americans. Many of these tactics would remain largely unchanged and undetected throughout the 1990s and up to the 9/11 attack.
Thus, abuse of the immigration system and a lack of interior immigration enforcement were unwittingly working together to support terrorist activity. It would remain largely unknown, since no agency of the U.S. government analyzed terrorist travel patterns until after 9/11. This lack of attention meant that critical opportunities to disrupt terrorist travel and, therefore, deadly terrorist operations were missed.
So-called “Sanctuary policies” that obstruct and block the enforcement of the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States are diametrically opposed to the findings, recommendations and indeed, explicit warnings of the 9/11 Commission!
In fact I was invited, by none other than Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, the then Ranking Member of the House Immigration Subcommittee to testify before a hearing on March 19, 2002, on the concerning subject:
Sheila ultimately invited me to testify before two additional hearings on immigration-related issues.
However, as the saying goes, “That was then, this is now!”
To provide just one example, on April 3, 2026 Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat Senator from Illinois and a wounded combat veteran, posted this notice on her official U.S. Senate website out of her concerns that the TSA may be compromising airline security by eliminating the requirement that airline passengers remove their shoes as a part of the security screening process.
She may actually be justified in her concerns, but here is where her actual grasp of national security comes up short- extremely short.
The inspections process conducted by the Transportation Safety Administration is designed to prevent terrorists and others who pose a potential threat to airline safety from gaining access to airliners to protect the airliners and to help prevent an attack, such as we saw on September 11, 2001 wherein passenger airliners were turned into de facto deadly “cruise missiles.”I doubt that Senator Duckworth would willingly board an airliner if she knew that some of her fellow passengers had intentionally evaded TSA vetting. In fact, I imagine that she would demand that those unvetted passengers be removed from her flight before she would even set foot in that airliner!
However, the legally mandated inspections process that is carried out at United States ports of entry by CBP (Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Inspectors is required, by law, to provide a similar vetting process conducted by the TSA.
In the case of inspections conducted by CBP at ports of entry, the goal of that inspection is to prevent the entry, into the United States, of terrorists, spies, members of transnational gangs and others whose presence would threaten public health, public safety and national security.
So while Senator Duckworth expresses her concerns that the TSA vetting process may not be stringent enough, she clearly does not care, even a little, about aliens who evade the comparable vetting process conducted at ports of entry required by immigration law and are now living in communities across our nation, are are hence subject to arrest and removal, including the unknown terrorists, spies, fugitives and others who pose a threat to our safety and security!
It is laudable that Senator Duckworth seeks to protect airliners and the public from those who pose a threat to airline safety, why then is she opposed to long-standing laws that were enacted to protect national security?
Furthermore, aliens who evade the critical vetting process conducted at ports of entry are said to have entered the United States without inspection in violation of law. The lie perpetrated on Americans by President Jimmy Carter that these illegal alien are simply “Undocumented Immigrants” are actually illegal aliens, in the parlance of immigration law enforcement are EWIs (Entrants Without Inspection)!
Entry Without Inspection is a violation of federal law!
This is the relevant section of law:
Title 8 USC 1325: Improper Entry By Alien
Another federal statute is also frequently violated by aliens who enter the United States without inspection, aliens who had been previously deported from the United States and who have not received authorization to legally re-enter the United States after having been deported (removed) from the United States. That section of law comprehended within the INA is Title 8 USC 1326.
Aliens who are guilty of this crime face up to two years in prison if they have no criminal histories, however, aliens who have been convicted of committing serious crimes and are deemed, “aggravated felons” face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison upon conviction for that crime. (I am proud to have worked with then United States Senator Al d’Amato in the 1980’s to create that enhanced penalty for the unlawful re-entry of criminal aliens.)
Think about that simple and irrefutable fact that there are millions of aliens who are illegally present in the United States who may not only be subject to the administrative action of deportation (removal) but may also be subject to criminal prosecution for an array of federal felony statues, the next time you hear a politician chant, “No one is above the law” even as they demand the dismantling of ICE while shielding these aliens, via so-called illegal sanctuary policies, from federal immigration law enforcement and the consequences these aliens may face for the violations of immigration laws they have committed!
In fact, the promulgation of “sanctuary” policies is an apparent violation of a criminal statue comprehended within the INA, 8 U.S. Code § 1324 – Bringing in and harboring certain aliens that contains among other provisions, the following:
(iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation;
(iv) encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law
Please take note, that section of the INA uses the term “Alien” and in fact, the term “Alien” can be found throughout the Immigration and nationality Act!
Indeed, under the Immigration and Nationality Act-INA § 101 (8 USC § 1101)- Definitions, the term “Alien” is defined simply as:
“Any person, not a citizen or national of the United States.”
Jimmy Carter: Originator of the Orwellian Term ‘Undocumented Immigrant’
The term “Alien” is not a pejorative but is a legal term that provides clarity to the enforcement and administration of our immigration laws.
I would, in fact, argue that failing to make clear distinction between aliens who are lawfully present in the United States versus aliens whose presence is in violation of law is disrespectful, insulting and humiliating to lawful immigrants and nonimmigrant aliens who are present in the United States in accordance with our immigration laws!
Now the question that remains that all Americans must ask is, “Why on earth would any politician seek to eliminate our nation’s borders and seek to end the enforcement of our critical immigration laws?”
Are they crazy or corrupt or, perhaps, both?
Some may be ideologue who truly hate our country and are seeking “regime change” in the United States!
Then there is an old adage that states that when you seek to determine motivation when a crime is committed, you must “follow the money!”
During the administration of the 46th President of the United States, the Autopen, masquerading as Joe Biden, America witnessed the unprecedented constant stream of many millions of aliens flowing north from Latin America to the southern border of the United States that came to be referred as the “Migrant Caravan.”
The Biden administration created that largest human trafficking operation in the history of the United States. It responded to this crisis that it created, facilitated and encouraged by using NGOs as the conduit for the huge amounts of money to provide resources for housing, food, medical treatment and other services for millions of aliens who were part of the “Migrant Caravan” that should have been more accurately referred to as the “Alien Gravy Train!”
Let’s consider who else, besides NGOs has been slurping up that gravy:
The immigration law firms (immigration lawyers can be found in both political parties), who saw in those millions of alien a virtually limitless number of clients!
The money remitters and banks that act as “moving companies” to move money from aliens in the United States to their families in their home countries and charge fee for their services. This flow of billions of dollars bleed money out of the U.S. and is detrimental to our economy.
Then we have various special interest groups that brought their ladles to the trough and, of course, we had unscrupulous employers looking for cheap and exploitable labor as well as labor unions that were eager to enroll alien workers to gain political leverage and the money that their union dues provided.
Realtors likely worked with the NGOs to provide housing as did various religious organizations eager to fill their pews.
I may have inadvertently left out some other “gravy slurpers,” but we cannot possibly forget criminal and terrorist organizations that saw in that huge human tsunami, unparalleled opportunities to easily get their operatives into the United State along with adversarial nations who seized the opportunity to get their spies, saboteurs and operatives into the United States!
Political campaigns need lot of money and it would not be surprising to discover that companies granted lucrative contracts were possibly making campaign contributions so that the money went round and round!
Meanwhile it would not come as a surprise if some politicians were caught in “compromising positions” by government operatives of adversarial foreign countries who then blackmailed the comprised politician to push an open borders / anti-ICE agenda that facilitated their hostile actions against the United States.
They are all figuratively and literally “making out like bandits” while our national security is jeopardized, public safety is compromised and we, and ultimately our children, pay the price!
This article originally appeared on Front Page Magazine.
©2026 Michael Cutler. All rights reserved.
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