Cracking Down on Illegal Immigrants

Cal Thomas | Syndicated columnist | Published: Apr 02, 2002

Cracking Down on Illegal Immigrants

Federal law enforcement officials have finally begun hunting down and arresting Muslim immigrants who failed to comply with deportation orders prior to September 11.

Justice Department officials say targeting people from countries where the al Qaeda terror organization has been active will give investigators an opportunity to interrogate Muslims as they are detained for immigration law violations.

The government says there are at least 320,000 "alien absconders" in this country. These are people who have overstayed their visa expiration dates or people who managed to remain here after a judge ordered them to leave. An estimated 6,000 of them come from Arab and/or Muslim countries.

As of March 19, only 168 people from that list had been arrested. We still don't know how many of these people mean us harm and are awaiting signals from their leaders to kill more Americans the faster we deport them, or put the guilty in prison, the better for all of us. I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.

Cracking Down on Illegal Immigrants