WASHINGTON, 31 August 2005 — At least 17 Arab men convicted or linked to terrorism obtained US citizenship or permanent residency by marrying American women in the past 15 years, according to a report yesterday that urged better enforcement of immigration laws.
The report by Janice Kephart, a former counsel to the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, said at least nine of the marriages were sham, designed solely to allow the men to “embed themselves” and operate freely in the United States.
One individual, Khalid Abu Al-Dahab, married three American women in quick succession before he was finally able to acquire legal permanent residency.
“During his 12 years in the United States, he provided money and fraudulent travel documents to terrorists around the globe. These activities linked him to numerous attacks, including the 1998 East Africa bombings,” Kephart said.
More than 200 people were killed in almost simultaneous bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in August 1998.
The report said three other defendants involved in those attacks also married US citizens. Two acquired legal permanent residency and the third became a citizen.
Several others connected to the Iranian-backed Hezbullah organization entered the country on non-immigrant tourist visas and paid US citizens to marry them within days of their arrival so they could stay indefinitely.
Steve Camarota, of the Center for Immigration Studies, which published Kephart’s paper, said US immigration officials were overwhelmed by the number of people they had to deal with and could not conduct proper security checks. The CIS advocates cutting legal migration to the United States.
“You can’t have this level of immigration and this level of resources and still keep out the bad guys,” he said.
Kephart’s report, which looked at the immigration histories of 94 individuals suspected or convicted of terrorism between the early 1990s and 2004, also documented numerous other ways in which they obtained legal status.
She said 59 committed immigration fraud before taking part in terrorist activity. There were 11 instances of passport fraud and 10 of visa fraud.
Others gained entry on religious worker visas, issued to ministers or religious professionals. Kephart said there was little vetting either of the religious institutions that sponsored the visa applicants or the religious qualifications of the applicants themselves.
For instance, Muhammad Khalil, imam of a mosque located in a Brooklyn basement, sponsored more than 200 applicants for religious visas for a fee of $5,000-$6,000 apiece. He also sold Social Security cards for $2,300, drivers’ licenses and undergraduate degree certificates.
Khalil was eventually caught in a sting operation and convicted of various fraud charges in 2004.
