Huck, immigration and U.S. restrictions

Posted: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 4:49 PM by Domenico Montanaro

From NBC's Garrett Haake and Robert Windrem
Huckabee said today, per NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner Treworgy, "Every one of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 came her legally. Our government welcomed them in. Well, there's a couple of things we're going to do differently. I say we ought to put a hiatus on people who come here and give them permits if they come from countries that sponsor and harbor terrorists. Let's say until you get your act in order and we'll get our act in order."

But NBC News recently did some research on the status of immigration from four countries, which while not on the list of terrorist states, have produced a number of terrorists, both on 9/11 and elsewhere. Bottom line: The US has extensively restricted visitors from those countries since the attacks on New York and Washington.

The data shows that there was a big dropoff in temporary visits from the four nations -- Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates -- after 9/11, then a resurgence. However, in none of the four nations have visas risen to more than half their pre-9/11 levels. In the case of Saudi Arabia, the number isn't even one-third as high.

2006 levels are most recent available.
Egypt:
2001: Temporary Visits 41,060 Student/Exchange: 2921
2002: Temporary Visits 13,375 Student/Exchange: 1718
2006: Temporary Visits 23,376 Student/Exchange: 2064

Pakistan:
2001: Temporary Visits 60,676 Student/Exchange: 4321
2002: Temporary Visits 20,133 Student/Exchange: 1852
2006: Temporary Visits 29,487 Student/Exchange: 2028

Saudi Arabia:
2001: Temporary Visits 35,503 Student/Exchange: 4705
2002: Temporary Visits 7,439 Student/Exchange: 1692
2006: Temporary Visits 10,552 Student/Exchange: 9471 (* Saudi Student visas way up thanks to a scholarship program from the Saudi govt.)

UAE:
2001: Temporary Visits 9348 Student/Exchange: 1096
2002: Temporary Visits 974 Student/Exchange: 361
2006: Temporary Visits 3389 Student/Exchange: 487

The number of visitors from countries that have been designated state sponsors of terrorism are minimal...Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria and Sudan.

EMAIL THIS

Comments

Okay, so basically Huckabee's "new and improved" foreign policy is to do what we're already doing....

By the way, how does this jive with his immigration politics? Frankly our homeland security needs to consider both the illegal immigrants from "non-terrorist" countries AND the legal immigrants who are from terrorist countires if we want to keep this country safe.

Huckabee has supported amnesty and letting immigrants from wherever stay here, regardless of their legal status (despite what he says now... In June 2005, Huckabee was the keynote speaker at the national LULAC convention in Little Rock and in his speech advocated for open borders and amnesty. He also called immigration enforcement efforts within the U.S. “un-Christian, un-American, irresponsible and anti-life."... now he is pro-border control, and claims to be anti-amnesty...)

While the majority of the 12 million illegals currently in this country are probably not dangerous, an estimated 2 million of them have committed crimes above and beyond just being here. Plus, an easy to cross border provides easy access for terrorists who choose to come here that way.

While I agree that we need to be careful when deciding who to give student visas and "visitor passes" toa, I think it would be ridiculous to say, "none of your people, regardless of how innocent, can come here until you no longer have terrorists in your country..." By the way, America produces terrorists too- remember Tim McVeigh?

The best college teacher I ever had came here from Iran to go to college. He was actually prevented from going back because of a civil war that broke out there. So, he stayed here, finished his education (including a doctorate), became a citizen, married and raised a family. Now he frequently wins awards for his exemplary teaching of business and ethics. What a shame it would be if good, honorable people like "Dr. Abe" weren't allowed to come here, because there happen to be a lot of crazy terrorists in his homeland.

Think about it.

Kira, Utah (Sent Wednesday, January 16, 2008 1:14 PM)

Ok, third time trying to post this since this article appeared yesterday...

Okay, so basically Huckabee's "new and improved" foreign policy is to do what we're already doing....

By the way, how does this jive with his immigration politics? Frankly our homeland security needs to consider both the illegal immigrants from "non-terrorist" countries AND the legal immigrants who are from terrorist countires if we want to keep this country safe.

Huckabee has supported amnesty and letting immigrants from wherever stay here, regardless of their legal status (despite what he says now... In June 2005, Huckabee was the keynote speaker at the national LULAC convention in Little Rock and in his speech advocated for open borders and amnesty. He also called immigration enforcement efforts within the U.S. “un-Christian, un-American, irresponsible and anti-life."... now he is pro-border control, and claims to be anti-amnesty...)

While the majority of the 12 million illegals currently in this country are probably not dangerous, an estimated 2 million of them have committed crimes above and beyond just being here. Plus, an easy to cross border provides easy access for terrorists who choose to come here that way.

While I agree that we need to be careful when deciding who to give student visas and "visitor passes" toa, I think it would be ridiculous to say, "none of your people, regardless of how innocent, can come here until you no longer have terrorists in your country..." By the way, America produces terrorists too- remember Tim McVeigh?

The best college teacher I ever had came here from Iran to go to college. He was actually prevented from going back because of a civil war that broke out there. So, he stayed here, finished his education (including a doctorate), became a citizen, married and raised a family. Now he frequently wins awards for his exemplary teaching of business and ethics. What a shame it would be if good, honorable people like "Dr. Abe" weren't allowed to come here, because there happen to be a lot of crazy terrorists in his homeland.

Think about it.

Kira, Utah (Sent Wednesday, January 16, 2008 2:00 PM)

Try number 3!

Okay, so basically Huckabee's "new and improved" foreign policy is to do what we're already doing....

By the way, how does this jive with his immigration politics? Frankly our homeland security needs to consider both the illegal immigrants from "non-terrorist" countries AND the legal immigrants who are from terrorist countires if we want to keep this country safe.

Huckabee has supported amnesty and letting immigrants from wherever stay here, regardless of their legal status (despite what he says now... In June 2005, Huckabee was the keynote speaker at the national LULAC convention in Little Rock and in his speech advocated for open borders and amnesty. He also called immigration enforcement efforts within the U.S. “un-Christian, un-American, irresponsible and anti-life."... now he is pro-border control, and claims to be anti-amnesty...)

While the majority of the 12 million illegals currently in this country are probably not dangerous, an estimated 2 million of them have committed crimes above and beyond just being here. Plus, an easy to cross border provides easy access for terrorists who choose to come here that way.

While I agree that we need to be careful when deciding who to give student visas and "visitor passes" toa, I think it would be ridiculous to say, "none of your people, regardless of how innocent, can come here until you no longer have terrorists in your country..." By the way, America produces terrorists too- remember Tim McVeigh?

The best college teacher I ever had came here from Iran to go to college. He was actually prevented from going back because of a civil war that broke out there. So, he stayed here, finished his education (including a doctorate), became a citizen, married and raised a family. Now he frequently wins awards for his exemplary teaching of business and ethics. What a shame it would be if good, honorable people like "Dr. Abe" weren't allowed to come here, because there happen to be a lot of crazy terrorists in his homeland.

Think about it.

Kira, Utah (Sent Wednesday, January 16, 2008 4:07 PM)

Is there a reason why no posts are being posted here?

annoyed (Sent Wednesday, January 16, 2008 6:21 PM)

hmmm. sorry readers. It took two days for my posting to go up. Then all three attempts showed up. Sorry :) looks like maybe I wasn't the only one with that problem... annoyed, etc. try, try again:)

Kira, Utah (Sent Thursday, January 17, 2008 4:21 PM)

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