SACRAMENTO, CA - In the blame game following the September 11 terrorist attacks, fingers are being pointed at lax airport security, inadequate intelligence gathering, and a ho-hum, it-can’t-happen-here mentality. While these factors were important, the terrorists wouldn’t have been in our country and wouldn’t have been able to perpetrate their evil deeds except for the colossal failure of our immigration system.

Many of the terrorists were in the United States on invalid or expired visas. U.S. consular officials, overwhelmed with visa applications, generally do not have much time to investigate visa applicants. According to the New York Times, once in the U.S., immigration and law enforcement officials usually have no idea if foreign visitors are complying with the terms of their visas. U.S. Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) recently admitted that: “We have known for a long time that we have an immigration problem here that is being taken advantage of by terrorists. The reality is, we have never paid as much attention to that as we should.”

Why haven’t we paid enough attention? Mainly because of opportunism among the major players in immigration policymaking. Business wants less restrictive immigration rules so that it can import workers. Labor unions want looser immigration regulations to gain new members. Politicians of both parties winked at illegal immigration and supported amnesty for illegals in order to curry political favor with growing ethnic voting blocs. All this opportunism has led to bad policies with disastrous consequences.

And make no mistake, this isn’t just a question of a poorly run visa program. The problem we face encompasses the entire spectrum of our immigration policies. Our borders are so porous that we now have six to 11 million illegal immigrants in our country. Our system of allowing in a flood of legal immigrants has so balkanized our population that large numbers of immigrants show little or no allegiance to the United States. A survey by an Iranian-born Harvard researcher of Muslim immigrants in Los Angeles County found that 12 out of 15 immigrants feel more allegiance to a foreign country than to the United States. Thomas Sowell has warned that immigrants “may be hijacked by those activists who are ideologically committed to keeping them speaking foreign languages, loyal to foreign values and--if possible--taught to feel historic grievances against the country that is welcoming them today.”

Even immigrants who become naturalized citizens often remain more committed to their mother country than to their adopted homeland. Leticia Quezada, a former Los Angeles school board member, says: “I’ve never stopped feeling Mexican. I have become a United States citizen because this is where I live, where I have made my professional life. I have made a commitment, but it’s sort of an intellectual commitment, whereas emotionally I’m Mexican. I want to be Mexican.”

A few years ago, after writing an article on the high crime rate among illegal immigrants in California, I received an irate phone call from a man who, although claiming to be a naturalized citizen, kept referring to “you Yankees.” While he may have been a citizen on paper, that man was not an American in his heart. As the events of September 11th demonstrate, immigration without assimilation is not just a social problem, it can be a huge national security risk.

Lance T. Izumi