(NewsNation) — Suspected terrorists can enter the U.S. in part because there are too many people in the immigration system and too few federal employees to deal with them, according to the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
And that, says a former member of the National Security Council, is ridiculous.
“This is not the type of system that this country decided to run after the tragedies on September 11. It’s gotta be fixed,” said Michael Allen, who was a member of the National Security Council in the George W. Bush administration.
As with so many issues, Allen said the short-term answer is money.
“Fund more beds and more people that can apprehend these would-be terrorists coming across the border,” he told NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
Beyond more beds, more buses and more agents, Allen says we need a stronger intelligence system.
“Our databases are only as good as the intelligence that our intelligence officers collect overseas,” he said.
Allen is also happy that Congress, after tense negotiations, reauthorized the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows electronic surveillance of suspected terrorists overseas.
“If they’re out there and being open and notorious, we ought to be able to get some sense of who they are and what they’re up to long before they reach our southern border,” he said.
Allen discounts the idea that the Mexican drug cartels are partnering with terror groups to smuggle potential terrorists into the U.S.
“That would probably put more scrutiny on them than they want, but they’re definitely not checking who’s coming to them. They’re probably looking the other way,” he said.
While he says most people at the border are economic migrants looking for a better life, Allen said, “We have to think about what’s going on internationally. We have ungoverned spaces. We have a war in the Middle East.”
And, given a new wave of possible terrorists from Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries, “we have a big task on our hands.”