There is cause for great concern about the case of Nada Nadim Prouty, a Lebanese citizen who managed to game the immigration bureaucracy to acquire United States citizenship.  By marrying fraudulently, she was able to achieve her goal of becoming a resident alien after she had gained lawful entry into the United States as a student. She eventually became a trusted employee of the FBI and the CIA.

I have a fairly extensive background in this sort of arrangement.  When I was with the former INS, I was detailed for about a year as an adjudicator to the unit charged with determining if couples who claimed to be married (in order to enable aliens to become resident aliens) were truly living together or had engaged in a fraud or "sham" marriage to circumvent the immigration laws of the United States.  Additionally, when I became a criminal investigator, or special agent as that job is now known, I spent several years assigned to the Frauds Unit of the Investigations Branch of the New York Office of the INS conducting field investigations into suspected fraud marriages. 

Recently the Washington Times reported on this case, but their article was disturbing and infuriating in that the news report stated:

"Investigators said Prouty managed to get past three security firewalls.

First, she obtained security clearance and a job as an FBI special agent. Then, she got clearance and a job at the CIA. ABC News said she worked at the agency’s National Clandestine Service, which runs covert operations.

And finally, Prouty penetrated the FBI’s classified database to obtain information about the federal probe of Hezbollah and of her sister and brother-in-law, who allegedly had ties to senior members of the terrorist group.

The FBI said Prouty passed a polygraph test during her background check but was not subjected to the high level of screening that was adopted after FBI agent Robert Hanssen was exposed as a Soviet and Russian spy in 2001."

This report is not entirely accurate.  Ms. Prouty’s odyssey began when she gamed the immigration system to gain lawful immigrant status in the United States; the investigators charged with figuring out how she managed to deceive our government in an almost unimaginable manner are apparently ignoring the fact that the first step she took along the way – ultimately to gain access to the FBI and CIA – was to commit an immigration felony and engage in a marriage fraud.  The first firewall was not, as the quote above indicates, obtaining a security clearance at the FBI; it was gaining a green card by committing a felony and entering into a sham marriage.

A study that was done after the attacks of 9/11 disclosed that of 94 terrorists who were identified as operating in the United States in the decade immediately preceding the attacks of September 11, 2001, 59 of those identified terrorists had committed immigration benefit fraud either to enter the United States and/or to embed themselves in the US after they gained entry. 

This fact, and the issue of immigration benefit fraud and its nexus to national security, was clearly noted in a GAO report that can be found at: 

http://www.gao.gov/htext/d06259.html

This report makes it abundantly clear why the interior enforcement of the immigration laws must not only punish employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens, but also immediately place convicted alien criminals under deportation proceedings.  While these two missions are of great significance, if our government does not mount an effective effort to weed out aliens who seek to acquire resident alien status and United States citizenship, then our country will remain at risk from not only terrorists and enemy agents, but from garden variety criminals as well.  

There is information filed with the Federal Court that sets forth the allegations against Ms. Prouty.  What stands out is that the information notes Ms. Prouty “and other co-conspirators” are described as having entered the United States on nonimmigrant visas, overstaying those visas and then entering into fraud marriages for the purpose of securing resident alien status.  These other, un-named co-conspirators are also alleged to have used their fraudulently acquired United States citizenship to obtain United States passports that they used to travel internationally.  It is also alleged they also used their naturalization certificate to obtain security clearances and sensitive employment with the United States government!

The questions raised are: how many such "moles" have inserted themselves in sensitive positions in our government and how much harm have they done?  Does our government even know how many such moles are currently embedded in our government or in sensitive positions in the private sector?  Understand that this means that the next time you are searched by TSA officials, there may be among them illegal aliens who gamed the immigration system.  There may be such insidious individuals working at nuclear power plants or other such critical infrastructures. 

Yet in describing what Ms. Prouty did, the investigator quoted in the above-mentioned article did not even state the immigration benefit fraud that she committed in furtherance of her objectives.

The term “Immigration” encompasses more than just the issue of the fence on the border or the raids on factories that employ illegal aliens.  Effective enforcement of immigration law must include the creation of an immigration benefits program that possesses true integrity.  This is absolutely a matter of critical importance with highly significant national security ramifications.

The article notes that Congress will hold hearings into this case. 

We the People need to watch how the hearings are conducted and pay attention to what, if anything is discussed about the vulnerabilities created by USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services).  We the People should not only demand that our elected representatives hold the administration and DHS accountable, but should also inundate the various news organizations to demand that the candidates for the Presidency be asked hard questions about how they would fix this huge gap in our nation’s security. 

The clock is ticking and time is most definitely not on our side.  

Democracy is not a spectator sport! 

Lead, follow or get out of the way!

The original article can be found at http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/

Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.

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About the author

Michael Cutler
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a recognized authority who regularly appears on radio and television programs, in addition to testifying before Congress, addressing the implications of immigration on national security and criminal justice. Cutler is part of AIM's Speakers Bureau. Send inquiries to speakers@aim.org