Obama Loosening Border Enforcement, State Dept. “Diversity Visas” Bringing In Thousands From Terror-Sponsoring Countries

At least we can be sure they’ll get a full pat-down on their way over. Maybe:

The State Department is planning to welcome thousands of immigrants from terror-watch list countries into the United States this year through a “diversity visa” lottery — a giant legal loophole some lawmakers say is a “serious national security threat” that has gone unchecked for years. Ostensibly designed to increase ethnic diversity among immigrants, the program invites in thousands of poorly educated laborers with few job skills — and that’s only the beginning of its problems, according to lawmakers and government investigations.

The State Department, for its part, insists that it’s awesome it is to bring in poor and uneducated – and often unassimilable – immigrants from countries crawling with jihadists. Because they won’t be anything like that “model assimilated immigrant” in Denmark, who ended up shooting two Jews in a mall because they were just too Jewish. They’re going to be different kinds of model assimilated immigrants.

On the upside, this isn’t going to make or break American border security. It’s pretty frustrating when you consider to whom the State Department is denying visas, but it’s not nearly as damaging as the administration’s broader anti-enforcement policies. And trust the Council on Foreign Relations to have someone who thinks that loosening border enforcement is the height of nuanced sophistication. From the policy community that brought you circa 2006 op-eds about how Ahmadinejad wasn’t a problem, 2009 op-eds about how locking down our borders is a wingnut overreaction to 9/11:

The Obama administration quietly announced last week that it would overturn one of the harsh immigration enforcement measures enacted by the Bush administration following the 9/11 terrorist attacks… The measure is the latest in a string of little-noticed initiatives by the Obama DHS to reconsider some of the most controversial enforcement policies of the past decade. The administration in August launched an overhaul of the immigration detention system… The Obama administration’s new policy, which will end such routine incarceration, had been urged by everyone from the bipartisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. And there is no reason to believe that the risks will rise significantly. There is considerable evidence, for instance, that alternative programs to monitor those released will ensure that they comply with whatever ruling a judge finally reaches.

Napolitano refused to even use the word “terrorism” during her March Congressional hearings, a lack of seriousness that more or less confirms Cheney’s “they’re trying to pretend we are not at war” criticism. From airline security to border security, it does kind of seem like they’re happily traipsing through a pre-9/11 world.

Well, except for the 9/11 Commission’s calls for new bureaucratic layers, federal expansion, and thousands of new government workers. That’s a change Democrats – to judge by their weirdly coordinated defenses of Napolitano – seem to regard with something almost approaching warmth.

References and related after the jump…

References:
* Thousands From Terror-Sponsoring Nations Entering U.S. on ‘Diversity Visas’ [Fox News]
* Muslim who shot two Jews in Denmark mall was once hailed as model assimilating immigrant [Jihad Watch]
* Former US Olympic Runner Faces Deportation – Needs Your Help [Gateway Pundit]
* Obama Quietly Changes U.S. Immigration Policy [Alden / OneWorld]
* Things That Are Awesome About The Recent “Don’t Worry About the Strange, Nazi-Like Iranian Behind the Curtain” LA Times / CFR Article [MR]
* Border Basics: What Is Terrorist Travel? [Center for Immigration Studies]
* Dick Cheney: Barack Obama ‘trying to pretend’ [Politico]
* Wherein Lies the Greatness of Janet Napolitano? [Kausfiles]