9/11 Twenty-One Years Later: Even Easier for Hijackers to Enter the Country

Americans recently observed the 21st anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on our nation. It is a day like few others. We know where we were and what we were doing when we heard the reports. Almost immediately, we began to see the images of young middle eastern men who were believed to be the perpetrators of such an act of evil we couldn’t fathom it. Most Americans probably remember the first time they saw the picture of lead hijacker Muhammed Atta. It seemed as if you were looking at the Devil himself.

It also appeared as if government agencies immediately jumped into action. Exactly who were these men? How did they enter the country? Once they did, what was their immigration status that allowed them to attend flight schools and get the training they needed to carry out their evil intentions? How did they manage to blend in with the rest of us right under our noses? A stunning new report from Breitbart not only details how the hijackers were able to stay under the radar, but it also explains how many more immigrants are using the same lax regulations 21 years later.

While airport security may have evolved, somewhat, we already know that the U.S. immigration system has not. Let’s begin with the basic status of the 19 hijackers. Like many from foreign nations do every day, all 19 hijackers entered the U.S. legally on visas. Most of them, 16 to be exact, entered the country on tourist visas, the other three, student or business visas. Seven of the 19 hijackers had, either prior to the attacks or around the time the attacks were carried out, had already overstayed their visas. When that happens, U.S. immigration law requires that the visa holder either be detained or deported. Clearly neither one occurred. One of those who was overstaying his visa, Nawaf al-Hamzi, was able to obtain a driver’s license in three different states, as did his brother Salem al-Hamzi, who only managed to get one driver’s license. Nawaf al-Hamzi even left the country and came back. His visa had been expired for nine months before he was placed on the terror watch list. By December of 2000, Atta had overstayed his welcome and had an expired visa. He also was not deported but had been detained in the United Arab Emirates after making the terror watch list. He was arrested for driving without a license but still managed to obtain one in Florida. Hani Hassan Honjour was considered an illegal immigrant by the time he flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. Marwan al-Shehhi made at least three separate trips in and out of the country, even though not only did he have an expired visa, but he had also been able to get a Florida driver’s license. Three others, Satam al-Suqami, Waleed al-Shehri, and Ahmed al-Ghamdi had expired visas and were in the country illegally and never deported.

Anyone starting to see a pattern here? You should be. Because the pattern is still occurring, and it is occurring in a much larger fashion. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the visa program is an even bigger mess than it was in 2001. By DHS’s own count, some 685,000 foreign visa holders have overstayed their visas and remain in the country illegally. The reason for this that is cited by DHS, they have next to no resources for detaining or deporting those that have overstayed visas. But after 9/11, the 9/11 Commission required that a stringent biometric exit/entry system be devised to keep track of all visa holders to determine whether they had left the country, and that they had left on the required date of departure. As of 2017, only Jet Blue airlines had begun using biometric facial recognition in lieu of boarding passes on all flights.   

So, what would happen if those same 19 hijackers wanted to get into the country to wreak havoc and horror today? Under the Biden administration, they would have a much easier pathway. In fact, a recent Associated Press report says that, at two of the nation’s busiest border crossing sites, Yuma, Arizona, and Eagle Pass, Texas, Border Patrol agents have seen people from at least 115 different countries. The 9/11 hijackers would not have had to worry about security, or passports, or visas, or anything else that might hinder them from getting into the country. It would have also been much less expensive an operation. The Associated Press report says that recently, six Russians related the journey they took to reach the U.S. They flew from Istanbul to Tijuana Mexico. After a stop in Cancun, they hired a driver to take them the four-hour ride to a deserted highway crossing where they entered the country. Given that story, it should be comforting for all Americans to know that so far, in fiscal year 2022, the number of people who are on the terror watch list that have entered the country is at roughly 66.

The United States is on course to have around 2 million people cross the southern border illegally this year, the highest number ever recorded. The Biden administration continues to float the idea that the border is secure, it’s the immigration system itself that is broken. And of course, they blame it all on Donald Trump, you know, the guy who was well on his way to completing a wall to keep those who would try to enter the country illegally out. While the Biden administration plays the blame game, record amounts of drugs, gangs, human traffickers, and yes, terrorists enter the country.

The immigration loopholes should have been closed 21 years ago. Many administrations, both Democrat and Republican, could have fixed it. But now, those loopholes are a whole lot bigger.