Anyone familiar with the deportation abyss, which I’ve reported on for years, will not be surprised by the immigration court ruling in Obama’s illegal alien/fugitive aunt Zeituni Onyango’s case today. She’s getting yet another reprieve after defying judicial orders to leave the country.

Only in America, my friends:

Zeituni Onyango, the Kenyan aunt of President Obama, emerged this morning after a brief, closed-door hearing in US Immigration Court and smiled broadly.

“Praise God,” Onyango said softly, holding her head high as she was surrounded by a throng of men in suits.

Judge Leonard I. Shapiro continued Onyango’s case until Feb. 4, 2010, which allowed her to stay in the United States until at least that date, according to Fatimah Mateen, a spokesperson for the court. At the initial appearance, the judge explained the deportation charges against Onyango and detailed her rights. Mateen briefed reporters in the lobby of the courtroom, standing beneath a framed photograph of Onyango’s nephew, President Obama.

“Ms. Onyango case is being treated just like any other case before an immigration judge,” Mateen said.

Alas, there is much truth in this.

Auntie Zeituni is waiting for shamnesty:

Onyango plans to apply for permanent residency in the United States, according to Mike Rogers, a spokesman for Onyango’s lawyers. While the lawyers’ legal strategy remains unclear, Rogers said he was instructed not to use the word asylum.

“The decision as to Ms. Onyango’s request to stay permanently in the United States will be made during a second hearing,” Rogers said.

A security detail hurried her past photographers and a throng of reporters, whisking her in and out of the court without using the public entrances to federal building next to City Hall. Onyango wore a curly, rust-colored wig in what may have been an effort to hide from the media and walked with a cane, a consequence of back problems.

The hearing, which was closed at Onyango’s request, lasted less than 15 minutes and took place in a small, boxy courtroom with a red rug and nine benches. The third-floor room overlooks City Hall Plaza, where a white circus tent was visible below.

Lawyers for Onyango said yesterday that they planned to present new evidence seeking to reverse a 2004 deportation order and allow her to stay in the United States. The lawyers would not discuss their strategy, such as whether they would focus on her numerous health problems, political unrest in Kenya, or another issue.The former computer programmer, whom the president called Auntie Zeituni in one of his books, is battling a neurological condition in addition to her back problems.

The half-sister of Obama’s late father had applied for asylum in the past but lost. Since then, she has been living illegally in the United States, most recently in a South Boston public housing development.

Where in the world is Barack Obama’s illegal alien aunt, Zeituni Onyango? When last we saw the destitute relative, she was partying on Inauguration Day despite her fugitive status. The deportation evader is set to have yet another day in immigration court. She’s back at her Boston public housing complex, courtesy of the American taxpayer, preparing for the case. The Boston Globe reports:

President Barack Obama’s aunt, a Kenyan immigrant who ignited controversy last year for living in the United States illegally, has returned to her quiet apartment in a Boston public housing project to prepare for an April 1 deportation hearing that will be closed to the public…

…”The case is unusual in American history because it’s a relative of the president involved in immigration matters,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies. “It really does present the White House with an opportunity or a minefield. If they follow through on a decision that she should go home, that would actually raise the president’s credibility enormously on immigration enforcement.”

Obama has said that he has not had any involvement in the case and that it should run its ordinary course, White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said.

Onyango’s fate will play out behind closed doors before Judge Leonard Shapiro in Boston. Onyango’s lawyer, Margaret Wong of Ohio, successfully argued to reopen her case in December and have the proceedings closed to the public, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts.

Onyango declined two requests for interviews in recent days, and told a reporter to stop wasting her time.

“I’m not happy,” Onyango said, bundled up in a parka against the spring chill as she went to pick up her mail.

Wong has not responded to repeated requests for comment. But her spokesman told the Cleveland Plain Dealer in January that Onyango would present new evidence to back an asylum claim. Onyango has lost several attempts to fight deportation, said immigration court spokeswoman Elaine Komis. In 2003, a judge ordered her to leave the country, and she lost on appeal. She tried again, but an immigration judge ordered her deported in October 2004. Komis would not confirm whether Onyango had sought asylum before now because, she said, asylum cases are confidential.

Shapiro, an immigration judge since 1990, rejected 68 percent of asylum requests from 2002 to 2007, higher than the state and national averages, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Asylum seekers must show that they fear persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a social group.

Still, immigration lawyers said she has a chance because she managed to get a hearing.

Asylum fraud is rampant in the deportation system. With help from the Bush administration, Onyango has managed to escape accountability for her prolonged defiance of the law. Her case points up the interminable ways in which deportation fugitives manage to buy time after receiving orders to leave — and create new bites at the judicial apple. If she loses her case, she can appeal directly to Congress for a special relief bill.

You can beef up security on the border, but if a dysfunctional deportation abyss remains in place and if DHS refuses to enforce immigration laws on the interior, it’s more time and money down the drain.

Well, isn’t this special? After overstaying her visa, ignoring a federal deportation order for years, escaping apprehension in Boston, and taking refuge in Cleveland, the destitute illegal alien aunt of Barack Obama somehow found her way to Washington, D.C., for her nephew’s inauguration.

Federal immigration officials couldn’t find her, but she was spotted by several media outlets and partygoers around the Beltway.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported:

Ohio Democrats put aside the state’s financial troubles and cold weather Sunday night to celebrate its part in electing Barack Obama to the White House.

Just a few blocks from Obama’s soon-to-be residence, elected officials, former officeholders, proud volunteers and party activists from the Buckeye State noshed and drank at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, a historic luxury hotel…

… One special guest who commanded attention at the party was Zeituni Onyango, 56, Obama’s aunt from Kenya who has been in this country illegally and is getting help in her immigration fight from another ball guest, Cleveland attorney Margaret Wong.

About 900 people, who each paid $300, attended the ball, which was put on by a special committee set up for the event.

It sold corporate sponsorships — ranging from $10,000 to $75,000 — to help underwrite the cost of the ball and related activities. Among the sponsors were Duke Energy, Nationwide, the Ohio Education Association and Penn National Gaming.

The NYTimes, which doesn’t seem to have caught up to the news that Onyango ditched her Boston public housing for sanctuary in Ohio, added:

On Monday, some of Mr. Obama’s Kenyan relatives milled around the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel here, their colorful headscarves earning them more curious glances than even the sports and pop music stars in the room. Zeituni Onyango, the president’s aunt, explained that their family had always been able to absorb newcomers.

Pointing out that her male relatives used to take on multiple wives, she said, “My daddy said anyone coming into my family is my family.” (Ms. Onyango, who lives in Boston, recently faced deportation charges, but those orders have been stayed and she is pursuing a green card.)

Michelle Obama’s brother is quoted in the very next paragraph:

At holidays and celebrations, “you get a whole lot of people who are happy to be around family,” Craig Robinson said.

Guess Aunti has been rescued from under the bus — giving Hope to deportation fugitives across the country that Obama will look the other way at their cases, too.

***

Previous Zeituni Onyango blogging.

A Kent couple who claimed to be experts in immigration cases advised clients to falsely claim to be gay and subject to persecution or even death if they returned home so they could win asylum in the U.S., according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Steven and Helena Mahoney were arrested Tuesday after an investigation that began in September, according to federal officials. Prosecutors allege the couple claimed to be experts in immigration cases while operating Mahoney and Associates in Kent.

The Mahoneys — who are not licensed to practice law in the state of Washington — are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud. Steven Mahoney also has been charged with three counts of immigration fraud, according to the indictment.

They appeared Tuesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler, who ordered Steven Mahoney to be held pending a detention hearing on Friday. Helena Mahoney was released.

The judge set the trial for Jan. 29.

The indictment alleges that in at least three instances the Mahoneys told immigrants to falsely state they were homosexual on immigration documents and that they feared persecution or even death if they returned to their own countries.

The three victims are identified only by initials, and the indictment does not indicate what countries they were from.

In one instance, involving an individual identified only as A.K., Steven Mahoney is alleged to have advised him to say on immigration applications that he was gay and that the militia in his country had attempted to rape his wife because of it, according to the indictment. Helena Mahoney allegedly helped the man obtain “documents about the gay community to assist A.K. in preparing for his asylum interview,” the indictment alleges.

Another immigrant, identified as G.V., reportedly submitted documents to the immigration officials claiming that he was afraid he would be maimed if he returned to his homeland “when in truth … G.V. was not afraid of such maiming,” according to the indictment.

It’s not clear whether any of the three immigrants mentioned in the indictment was granted asylum status and allowed to stay in the U.S.

Not that it matters. We know what happens when many asylum applicants are rejected and ordered home:

Nothing.

My syndicated column today reports the rest of the deportation fugitive Aunti Zeituni Onyango story that both Barack Obama and George Bush would prefer to keep covered up. God save us from bipartisanship.

***

Obama’s illegal alien auntie: The rest of the story
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2008

I hope Barack Obama remembered to thank George Bush on behalf of his illegal alien aunt this week. The lame-duck Republican president did the Democratic president-elect a generous — and dangerous — favor right before Election Day: Putting politics above homeland security, the Bush administration ordered immigration authorities across the country to halt all deportation enforcement actions until after the campaign season was over.

According to my sources, the Bush administration issued a 72-hour cease-and-desist order to all fugitive apprehension teams to spare Obama embarrassment over his Kenyan half-aunt, Zeituni Onyango. The Associated Press had reported on Nov. 1 that Onyango was a deportation evader – one of an estimated 700,000 illegal alien absconders who have ignored orders from immigration judges to leave the country. The wire report mentioned that the Department of Homeland Security distributed “an unusual nationwide directive within Immigrations and Customs Enforcement requiring any deportations prior to Tuesday’s election to be approved at least at the level of ICE regional directors.”

But the politicized order was even worse than the AP reported. The deportation process wasn’t simply slowed down for public relations reasons and fear of a media backlash. The process was completely frozen.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement source familiar with Western field offices told me: “The ICE fugitive operations group throughout the U.S. was told to stand down until after the election from arresting or transporting anyone out of the U.S. This was done to avoid any mistakes of deporting or arresting anyone who could have a connection to the election, i.e., anyone from Kenya who could be a relative. The decision was election-driven.”

Another source close to ICE operations in a southern California field office confirmed that immigration officials there received the same directive: “The reason they included all offices in the US was to show that they were not targeting the district Office where Aunti lived. They don’t want to pick her up by mistake and cause a big problem.”

In other words, the Bush Department of Homeland Security determined that protecting Barack Obama from the negative publicity surrounding a potential arrest of his illegal alien aunt was more important to the general welfare of the country than tracking down untold numbers of deportation absconders who received an extra three-day pass last week. DHS refuses to comment publicly about the case. Warped homeland security priorities are bipartisan. Democrat Rep. John Conyers has called for an immediate investigation – not into the rank politicizing of our deportation policies, but into who leaked Onyango’s deportation fugitive status to the press.

Question: Why shouldn’t this information be public?

As for President-elect Obama, his true views about ICE are well-known. Despite telling Katie Couric that his aunt should be required to follow the law because “We’re a nation of laws…I’m a strong believer you have to obey the law,” Obama scolded ICE agents who do their jobs for “terrorizing” communities.

Onyango arrived in the U.S. in 2000 on a temporary visa. Her asylum request was rejected in 2004. She defied the immigration court order to go back to Kenya, moved into Boston public housing, and is now hiding with relatives in Cleveland while contemplating how to extend her illegal stay.

Question: Will an Obama White House reinstate the deportation enforcement freeze in Ohio? Wouldn’t want to “terrorize” the community.

(Meanwhile, real terrorists have benefited enormously from lax enforcement of deportation orders and asylum loopholes. Ramzi Yousef, Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer, and Mir Aimal Kansi all exploited our catch-and-release system by invoking asylum and evading swamped authorities before plotting and executing jihadist attacks.)

Onyango’s options, like those of hundreds of thousands of deportation fugitives like her, are wide open. With the help of a seasoned immigration lawyer, she can take another bite at the judicial apple and appeal her deportation order. She can take her case all the way to the Supreme Court. She can find an illegal alien sanctuary church to give her refuge. Or she can take advantage of the longstanding congressional practice of creating “special relief” bills to help individual deportation fugitives escape punishment and acquire U.S. citizenship.

The post-9/11 Bush homeland security equation looks pretty much like the pre-9/11 one – one that will continue under Barack Obama: Cowardice plus rank opportunism times political correctness equals a lasting recipe for immigration chaos.

***

Update: Right on cue…

Dozens of immigrant advocates from across the country convened in Washington yesterday to call on President-elect Barack Obama to halt work-site immigration raids and fulfill campaign pledges to offer the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States a path to citizenship within his first year in office…

…Representatives of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, a coalition of grass-roots organizations from Los Angeles, New York and the Washington area, also announced plans to mobilize tens of thousands of immigrants and their supporters for a demonstration on the Mall on Jan. 21, the day after Obama’s inauguration.

“We voted in the millions, and now we’re going to demand progress in the millions,” said Angelica Salas, director of one of the allied organizations, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, at a news conference to publicize the movement’s efforts.

And now, Obama has gone and completely thrown Aunti under the bus — joining Obama’s poor grandmother. Via 24ahead, Obama was asked by Katie Couric if he supported the deportation of Onyango:

If she is violating laws those laws have to be obeyed. We’re a nation of laws. Obviously that doesn’t lessen my concern for her, I haven’t been able to be in touch with her. But I’m a strong believer you have to obey the law.

If he were telling the truth, I’d applaud him — and the Left would condemn him as a jack-booted racist.

But he’s lying — and all his cultists knows it.

In 2006, Obama marched shoulder-to-shoulder with illegal alien shamnesty activists in Chicago.

He supports driver’s licenses for illegal aliens.

And he said this:

We are not going to send [illegal aliens] home …Mr. Obama said many illegals have “settled,” “bought property” and have children who are U.S. citizens. He said the country would have to devote “all our law enforcement resources to rounding up people without papers, even if they weren’t causing any trouble,” and once that’s done, the country would have to “empty out our jails.” …That would force police to ignore killers and carjackers and instead be “worried about the guy in the kitchen somewhere who’s working in a restaurant… Not all of ‘em are from Mexico,” because some are from Ireland, Poland or Nigeria. …”Imagine what that would look like, basically detaining, putting in jail 12 million people. We’re not going to do that…”

He’s a diehard opponent of deportation — except if it embarrasses his campaign in the final hours before Election Day.

Obama politics as usual.

Lucky for Aunti, as I noted over the weekend, the open-borders Bush administration and skittish McCain campaign aren’t going to do anything about his duplicity.

Cowardice plus rank opportunism times political correctness = a lasting recipe for immigration chaos.

***

Related: How The Times followed a trail to find Barack Obama’s aunt

Previous:

Conyers calls for investigation into Aunti Zeituni info leak; Joe the Plumber still on his own

Obama’s illegal alien aunt (and campaign donor!) is a deportation fugitive; Bush administration moves to protect her

The MSM abhor anonymous leaks — unless they’re helping to undermine Bush administration anti-terrorism programs or conservative causes and candidates.

Laughably, the Obama cultists suspect that Bush administration officials are in cahoots with the McCain campaign and the Associated Press.

These people have reading comprehension and reality comprehension problems. It’s the Bush administration that has moved to protect Aunti Zeituni. It’s the pro-shamnesty Bush administration that will ensure that nothing happens to her. Pro-shamnesty McCain isn’t going to touch the story. McCain adviser Mark Salter told WaPo that it’s a “family matter.”

Another predictable prediction: McCain will issue an edict forbidding staff from talking about this the same way the staffers are forbidden from mentioning Jeremiah Wright — with disastrous results.

Never mind that the massive, systemic problem of deportation fugitives is a matter of national security and rule of law.

“Family matter,” my foot.

By the way: Where in the world is Aunti Zeituni? Who knows? And if it wasn’t Barack Obama who helped her get here, who did? How did she get a Social Security card? Who advised her to apply for public housing? Who did she know with a saavy enough legal background to help her navigate the paperwork of the welfare state?

Hmmmm?

Obama and his future wife, Michelle, met Onyango on a subsequent visit to Kenya in 1992, and she visited the Obama family in Chicago on a tourist visa about nine years ago, his campaign said. Onyango attended Obama’s U.S. Senate swearing-in ceremony in 2005, and the senator last heard from her about two years ago, according to the campaign.

A campaign source said Obama provided Onyango no assistance in obtaining a tourist visa or housing, or in her immigration case.

In an interview with the Times of London, which first reported Onyango’s presence in Boston and her campaign contributions, Onyango said she had traveled to and from the United States since 1975. Commercial databases indicate she received a Social Security card in 2001, indicating she was legally present and authorized to work at that time.

Onyango was not at her state-subsidized West Broadway residence yesterday in South Boston, and no one answered her telephone.

William McGonigle, deputy director of the Boston Housing Authority, said Onyango applied for public housing in 2002 and was approved in 2003 as an eligible noncitizen. She was paid a small stipend for volunteering as a resident health advocate starting in December 2007, he said.

Anyway, the latest inspiration for the sideline Protestants is their new Magdalene, Elvira Arellano. Today the Washington Times has published a report on this “New Sanctuary Movement” that Arellano inspired.

I’ll let you read the whole irritating thing, but let me draw your attention to this detail at the end: the whole movement hinges on a single legal loophole, one that could quite easily be closed by an interested Congress:

Although sheltering illegal immigrants is a felony, sanctuary organizers said in interviews that they had found a loophole in the law: They inform the local ICE office about an immigrant’s presence, thereby evading any charge of secretly harboring fugitives.

Shouldn’t openly harboring fugitives be a crime as well?

___________

{Post by See-Dubya}

Fool, Britannia:

Islamic extremist paid STG 2,000 to be smuggled from Malta to the UK

A terror suspect who was once found with a map marked with the flightpath to Birmingham International Airport has defeated the UK Government’s bid to deport him to Libya.

The man, who can only be identified by the initials DD, has been described by a court as “real and direct threat to the national security of the UK”.

A second Libyan, known only as AS and described as a “committed Islamist extremist” also won his appeal against deportation.

Note that this isn’t DD and AS’s first hearing; this is the government’s appeal after a prior loss. They were in the news a year ago for that and apparently Britain really, really, doesn’t want to send them back to Libya. Both articles–even the Guardian’s, for Pete’s sake–go on at truly jaw-dropping length explaining this guy’s familial and circumstantial ties to terrorism…for example, a violently deceased brother-in-law who was the suspected masterminded the Madrid bombing. But why can’t DD and AS be sent home?

Let’s ask the kindly souls of Amnesty International, UK:

In the cases of DD and AS, the Court of Appeal found no grounds to disagree with the decision of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) that the assurances which had been obtained by the UK from Libya, in the form of a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’, were not sufficient to protect DD and AS from a real risk of torture or other ill-treatment if they were to be returned to Libya. Amnesty International welcomed this recognition of the real risk to which these men would undoubtedly be exposed if they were to be returned to Libya.

Got that? The chance that this man (who bribed his way into the country illegally and engages in a ridiculous level of suspicious and outright pro-jihadist activity) might endure some unpleasantness at Khadaffi’s hands outweighs the risk that he might well unleash a bit of unpleasantness of his own upon the British populace.

Don’t worry, though. These guys won’t be set scot-free to roam the English countryside. The Maltese article notes they’ll be under a strict “control order”. Nothing keeps terrorists locked down like a control order.

There’s even a curfew.

Sleep tight.

____________________________________
P.S. What if we sent someone over to escort these guys to Gitmo?

Edwards assails U.S. arms sales to Arabs

Democrat John Edwards said the Bush administration’s plan to sell $20 billion worth of weapons to friendly Arab states amounted to a foreign policy of convenience and he will take a tougher stance with Saudi Arabia if elected president.

John Edwards. “Tougher.” Tee-hee.

Edwards said the United States should require the Saudi government to shut down the movement of terrorists across its borders, help stabilize the Iraqi government and participate more seriously in regional security before they are offered weapons.

Such a nutroots quandary: Attacking Bush’s Saudi coddling=good. Singling out Arab countries=bad. What to do? What to do?

At least we now have Johnny E. on record supporting national security profiling and border enforcement somewhere in the world. Just not here at home.

***
Put this on a bumper sticker, John Edwards: Jihad in America is real. Every time another al Qaeda-linked operative pleads guilty, the war on terrorism deniers roll their eyes. Downplay the seriousness of the plots. Decry racial profiling. And question the timing. The usual suspects will have the usual responses to yet another in a long line of self-confessed soldiers of Allah on American soil–this time, the Ohio shopping mall bomb plotter Nuradin Abdi:

A Somali immigrant the government says plotted to blow up an Ohio shopping mall pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Nuradin Abdi, 35, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley a week before his trial had been expected to start Aug. 6.

The Justice Department accused Abdi of suggesting the plan to attack a Columbus shopping mall during an August 2002 meeting at a coffee shop with now-convicted terrorist Iyman Faris and a third suspect, Christopher Paul.

Faris is serving 20 years in a maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colo., for his role in an al-Qaida plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge. Faris scouted the bridge and told al-Qaida its plans wouldn’t work, court papers have said.

Federal agents arrested Abdi the morning of Nov. 28, 2003, the day after Thanksgiving, out of fear the attack would be carried out on the heavy shopping day. He was arrested at 6 a.m. while leaving his Columbus home for morning prayers.

Prosecutors say Abdi gave stolen credit card numbers to a man accused of buying gear for al-Qaida, and lied on immigration documents to visit a jihadist training camp.

I wrote three years ago about how American’s insane asylum policies allowed Abdi to slip through. More on his co-conspirators here. Last year, another jihadi plot to attack malls came to light with the indictment of Chicago-area Muslim Derrick Shareef.

Tra-la-la. Nothing to see here, move along. Just another hapless “lone nut” who meant no harm when he provided material support to aid violent jihad, which doesn’t exist in the make-believe world of John Edwards and his ilk.

***

Forget about jihad, of course. Many Dems are busying themselves with impeachment. Lawhawk catches Nancy Pelosi playing both sides of the issue in an interview with left-wing journalists. Turns out she’d be for it if she didn’t feel like she had to be against it as speaker of the House:

If she were not in the House–and not Speaker of the House–Nancy Pelosi says she “would probably advocate” impeaching President Bush.

But given her current role as party leader, at a breakfast with progressive journalists today (named after our great friend Maria Leavey) Pelosi sketched her case against impeachment.

“The question of impeachment is something that would divide the country,” Pelosi said this morning during a wide-ranging discussion in the ornate Speaker’s office. Her top priorities are ending the war in Iraq, expanding health care, creating jobs and preserving the environment. “I know what our success can be on those issues. I don’t know what our success can be on impeaching the president.”

Notice that fighting jihad on the homefront is not on that list of priorities. I’m giving Lawhawk the last word here:

Pelosi’s view is one of 9/10, and one that proved to have fatal outcomes.

This is what passes as leadership in the House. Keep this in mind when you think that your vote doesn’t count or if you intend to sit out in 2008. Your votes do have consequences, and should have consequences.

A trained sniper during the war in Kosovo, Abdullahu and his family were among thousands given safe haven in the U.S. under the Clinton administration to protect them from the Serbs. For months, they would be housed in refugee camps at Ft. Dix, a circumstance which now points to a terribly ironic twist.

Terribly ironic? Or sadly predictable?

WPVI interviewed one of Abdullahu’s co-workers:

“He never really came out and said he had a hatred towards Americans and I told him many times, ‘look, you would have been left there if it wasn’t for us helping you out.’ If Clinton didn’t bring them in, he never would have had the chance that he had. This is how he repays us,” [Bob] Watts said.

Indeed. That’s the theme of my syndicated column today. Here you go:

Well, here is the thanks we get. Eight years ago, America opened its arms to tens of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo. The first planeload landed at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Military leaders worked day and night to turn the base into a child-friendly village. They coordinated medical and security checkups, mental health and trauma counseling and ethnic food preparations.

Soldiers from Fort Bragg traveled up from North Carolina to assist in refugee operations at Fort Dix. Then-U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mitchell M. Zais also assembled a team of about 80 soldiers from the U.S. Army Reserve Command in Atlanta. The New Jersey National Guard and American Red Cross teamed up to coordinate charity relief. The military also supported the relief effort’s interagency task force, headed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

In addition to food and shelter, we provided translators, welfare consultants and Muslim chaplains. The base constructed prayer rooms and handed out Muslim “sensitivity” cards to the troops. Said Gen. Zais: “We want to welcome these people to America the way we might wish our grandparents and great-grandparents had been welcomed to Ellis Island.”

Fast-forward from 1999 to yesterday’s headline news: “Fort Dix Plot Aimed At Soldiers; Authorities Say 6 Islamic Militants Arrested, Were Plotting Attack At N.J. Base.” Three of the alleged plotters were illegal alien brothers from the former Yugoslavia. Another was a legal permanent resident from the former Yugoslavia. Another hailed from Jordan, and the sixth was a naturalized American citizen originally from Turkey.

According to the criminal complaint against Dritan Duka, one of the illegal alien brothers accused of knowingly and willfully conspiring with the jihadi gang to kill U.S. soldiers, the plotters have schemed for more than a year to murder our troops. They scoped out Dover Air Force Base and Fort Monmouth, as well as the port of Philadelphia, before settling on Fort Dix. One of the participants used to deliver pizza to the base — used to supply food to our men and women in uniform giving him business — and knew the military facility “like the palm of his hand.”

You think all our hospitality and charity bred good will in these young men — all in their 20s and enjoying the fruits of the American Dream? Forget about it. The criminal complaint describes the plotters, along with a confidential informant, gathering at a rental house to train with Mujahadin video games:

“Members of the group pointed out that United States military vehicles were shown being destroyed in various attacks. [Illegal alien] Shain Duka pointed out that a United States Marine’s arm had been blown off, at which point laughter erupted from the group.”

Just hard-working, “undocumented citizens” plotting the plots and laughing at the anti-American atrocities ordinary Americans wouldn’t laugh at, yeah? If they had only laid low a few extra months, they might have gotten that illegal alien amnesty President Bush and Congress are so eager to hand out.

According to the criminal complaint, they laughed at our troops getting maimed and killed. They soaked up Osama bin Laden’s evil rants. They studied the 9/11 hijackers’ last wills and testaments. They contemplated infiltrating our armed forces to frag soldiers from the inside. They relished the thought of spilling American blood on American soil. Is yours boiling yet?

“My intent is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers,” Jordanian-born naturalized U.S. citizen Mohamad Shnewer is quoted telling the plotters. “You hit four, five, six humvees and light the whole place [up] and retreat completely without any losses.”

Eight years ago, at the Clinton administration’s behest, this nation welcomed refugees escaping a genocidal regime whose military spread fear and brutalized its people. Eight years later, we have a homegrown jihad plot targeting a base that symbolizes the best, the brightest and the most compassionate our military has to offer.

And what is the Muslim community doing to condemn the accused traitors in our midst? Carping about the government’s actions to stop jihad in its tracks:

“If these people did something, then they deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” said Muslim lawyer Sohail Mohammed. “But when the government says ‘Islamic militants,’ it sends a message to the public that Islam and militancy are synonymous.’”

The thanks we get, huh?

***

The NYPost editorial board weighs in: And the war goes on.

Andy McCarthy’s message to the MSM: It’s the ideology, not the organization, stupid.

***

Previous:

The Jersey Jihadists–and more on the John Doe hero; another John Doe tipped off authorities separately; Gaffney: Congress must protect John Does

Terrorist plot in Cherry Hill, NJ; illegal aliens among alleged plotters;
a John Doe turned them in; press conference at 2:30pm Eastern;
Fort Dix has been a refuge for ethnic Albanians; details from the complaint;
Dix responds

Hmm, now that the Gitmo detainees are entitled to habeas challenges and hearings by American courts and American judges, I wonder how long before they and their lawyers claim that they are entitled to asylum hearings as well?

I’m sure the sob stories are being cooked up ASAP.

I am an American citizen of Somali [descent] who came to United States in 1989. I agree with your assessment of people coming to this country to do mischief, destroy properties to undermined our economy, and kill innocent lives and disrupt our way of live, under the banner of human rights and fear of prosecution.

I came from Somalia when then the Somali dictator Siad Barre was in power. I did have a legitimate claim of fear of prosecution from his military regime at the time. However, in recent years it became quite routine process for anyone who can claim to be from Somalia to simply state the fact and without further background check and verification be granted an asylum. Also, in recent years Somalis from other countries like: Canada, UK, Scandinavians, and other European Union are falsely claiming that they are from Somalia and seeking asylum in the United States.

The reason why I wrote to you is my frustration with the State Department’s agency that handles refugee and asylum process. I am not angry with anyone but it is unfair to lot of people like me to do everything they suppose to do while refugees and asylees can simply jump the line ahead of everybody else.

I filed family reunion papers for my mother and siblings in 1998 with the immigration. They are still in the process, while refugees and asylees have the first priority to reunite with their families before they become employable and can support themselves, the sad thing about the whole affair is American taxpayers are footing the bill without really knowing about it…

…This is the best country in the whole world. When I could not go to my country, America gave me the opportunity to better my life and that of my family ; I am appreciative and grateful for that. I do not want my sons to be looking their shoulders for the rest of their lives because the have muslim names. I escaped from killings, destruction, mayhem, tyranny, dictatorship. I do not want the same people whether Somalis, Arabs or anyone else for that matter disrupt my live and create panic and bring back bad memories.

Ashcroft’s remarks on the Abdi indictment.

More on the asylum racket from Juan Mann at VDARE. Wanna be an expert on the deportation abyss? Read my Center for Immigration Studies analysis and read more at deportaliens.com