Should the U.S. pare back immigration until it has full security measures in place against terrorism?
The San Diego Union-Tribune, November 26, 2002 Yes. Across-the-board cuts would help. One approach frequently suggested to protect our country from Muslim terrorists is simply to bar immigrants, tourists and students from Muslim countries. A recent poll sponsored by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and the German Marshall Fund of the United States found considerable support for this approach, favored by 79 percent of the public and by 40 percent of opinion leaders. But there are two problems with this, one practical, the other ideological. The practical problem is that barring arrivals from Muslim countries just wouldn’t screen out terrorists. As it is, applicants from Middle Eastern countries formally listed as sponsors of terrorism – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Syria – have long been subject to extra scrutiny, so instead, the Sept. 11 terrorists came from Muslim countries not on the official list of terrorist-sponsoring countries. Now that we are focusing more scrutiny on most
