With open border advocates occupied with trying to keep illegal immigrants in the country, President Trump acted this week to improve the screening process, so we can better prevent criminal aliens and terrorists from getting into the country,<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Trump signed a presidential memorandum<\/a> directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish the National Vetting Center (NVS) and begin work on centralizing the efforts of those agencies responsible for vetting immigrants and foreign visitors.<\/p>\n Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen said<\/a> the NVC \u201cis yet another step towards knowing who is coming to the United States \u2013 that they are who they say they are and that they do not pose a threat to our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n She maintained the center would to provide \u201cfrontline defenders\u201d the real-time intelligence and law enforcement data necessary, but would not compromise the privacy, civil rights and civil liberties of American citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Federal Government’s current vetting efforts are ad hoc, which impedes our ability to keep up with today’s threats,\u201d said Press Secretary Sarah Sanders in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n The purpose of the NVC is to consolidate vetting activities in a central location, thus \u201cenabling officials to further leverage critical intelligence and law enforcement information to identify terrorists, criminals, and other nefarious actors trying to enter and remain within our country.\u201d<\/p>\n The NVC would receive neither additional funding, nor authority to carry out its mission of closing the many loopholes in the nation\u2019s vetting problem. Nevertheless, collecting information about the presence of foreign terrorists and criminals in our country could serve as an impetus for the government to act. The NVC may be a step in the right direction, but it is merely a small one given the existing loopholes and inefficiencies of the current system.<\/p>\n A January 2018 Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Inspector General report exposed the fact that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fails to continuously screen nearly 2.4 million illegal aliens who remain under their supervision after their release from custody.<\/p>\n The report also noted ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) \u201cmay be missing opportunities\u201d to identify and detain those aliens who pose the highest risk to national security and public safety. Furthermore, the OIG stated, \u201csome local law enforcement agencies do not cooperate with ICE, which prevents ERO from screening many other criminal aliens.\u201d