Homeland Insecurity

Fighting terrorism is apparently not the focus of the Dept. of Homeland Security. According the research group TRAC, Transactional Records Action Clearinghouse, only .01 of charges filed in court involved terror activities. The Bush administration has repeatedly stated that fighting terrorism is the primary focus of DHS.

Of the 814,073 people charged by DHS in immigration courts during the past three years, 12 faced charges of terrorism, TRAC said.

Those 12 cases represent 0.0015 percent of the total number of cases filed.

"The DHS claims it is focused on terrorism. Well that's just not true," said David Burnham, a TRAC spokesman. "Either there's no terrorism, or they're terrible at catching them. Either way it's bad for all of us."

TRAC is reporting that most of the charges filed had to do with student visas or just not having a valid visa.

If this is all this huge and costly agency can do then perhaps our dollars can be put to better use elsewhere or perhaps some new leadership. Michael Chertoff certainly seemed to be uninformed two years ago when he was defending the government's action after Hurricane Katrina. He stated, erroneously, that there was no Katrina scenario.

Now it seems that DHS is just another immigration enforcement agency. One that isn't doing so hot with that either.

DHS spokesman Russ Knocke called the TRAC report "ill-conceived" and said the group "lacked a grasp of the DHS mission."

Knocke said that, by clamping down on all forms of immigration, DHS has made it difficult for terrorists to come to the United States.

I think I'll just let that stand without comment.

Jim Martin