G-d bless Sen. Jeff Sessions, a prudent, thoughtful patriot.
With characteristic understatement, Sessions opined, “Our track record on screening is very poor.”
Sessions’ Subcommittee on Immigration and Natural Interest has identified at least 26 foreign-born individuals inside the U.S. who have either been charged with or convicted of terrorism in the last year with even more examples going back several years, including these examples (via Leada Gore):
- A Kazakhstani immigrant with lawful permanent resident status allegedly conspired to purchase a machine gun to shoot FBI and other law enforcement agentsif they prevented him from traveling to Syria to join ISIS.
- An immigrant from Saudi Arabia, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, swore allegiance to ISIS and pledged to explode a propane tank bombon U.S. soil, prosecutors said.
- A Uzbek man in Brooklyn encouraged other Uzbeki nationals to wage jihad on behalf of ISIS, and raised $1,600 for the terror organization.
- The Boston Bombers, who killed three and injured more than 250, were invited in as refugees. The younger brother applied for citizenship and was naturalizedon September 11th, 2012. The older brother had apending application for citizenship.
- A Moroccan national who came to the U.S. on a student visa was arrested for plotting to blow up a university and a federal court house
- 6 Members of Minnesota’s Somali-American refugee community have recently been charged with trying to join ISIS. The Washington Times reported that “the effort [to resettle large groups of Somali refugees in Minnesota] is having the unintended consequence of creating an enclave of immigrants with high unemployment that is both stressing the state’s safety net and creating a rich pool of potential recruiting targetsfor Islamist terror groups.”
- An Uzbek refugee living in Idaho was arrested and charged with providing support to a terrorist organization, in the form of teaching terror recruits how to build bombs. He was later convicted three terrorism-related charges.
- An American citizen whose family is from Syria was sentenced to up to five years in a juvenile prison for plotting to support ISIS and rob a gun store to kill members of the American military.
- An immigrant from Syria, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was accused by federal prosecutors of planning to “go to a military base in Texas and kill three or four American soldiers execution style.”
- A college student and Somali immigrant, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, attempted to blow up a Christmas tree lighting ceremonyin Oregon. He is serving a 30 year prison sentence.
- An immigrant from Afghanistan, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, and a legal permanent resident from the Philippines, were convicted for “join Al Qaeda and the Taliban in order to kill Americans.”
- An Iraqi immigrant, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was arrested for lying to federal agents about pledging allegiance to ISISand his travels to Syria. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott referenced the case when announcing his state would fight against accepting Syrian refugees.
- Two immigrants from Pakistan, who later applied for and received U.S citizenship, were sentenced to decades-long prison sentences for plotting to detonate a bomb in New York City.
- An immigrant from Yemen, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was arrested for trying to join ISIS. He was also charged with attempting to illegally buy firearms to try to shoot American military personnel. He is currently awaiting trial. He faces additional charges related to assaulting deputies while in custody.
- An immigrant brought here by his family from Kuwait at a young age, and who was later approved for U.S. citizenship, carried out the Islamist attack that recently killed 5 military personnel in Chattanooga. The gunman was killed by police.