Neff Zone Column

Print Edition: Saturday, July 16, 2005

HOMELAND SECURITY AND HOME LOANS

After the terrorist attack in London last week, President Bush was quick to repeat his assertion that it’s important for the United States to stay the course in Iraq because by fighting the terrorists abroad we can avoid fighting them at home. Even if you accept that premise, the scenes of carnage in London and the news that it was caused by "home grown" terrorists (people who were British citizens) had to make you nervous.

Then, this week, several developments on our own home security front came to light, which would indicate that despite the President’s best spin, our country is in no shape to prevent a London-style attack.

According to Paul L. Williams, author of the upcoming book, Al-Qaeda Connection, al Qaeda has been planning an attack on America that is well on its way and sources from military, academic, press and intelligence all concur that a nuclear attack in the U.S. is imminent. The MS-13 street gang has helped smuggle suitcase nukes across the border from Mexico and Williams believes at least 20 nukes have already been positioned inside America. Among the problems that have led to this situation, Williams named the porous borders that allow illegals to easily slip in to the U.S. and the small percentage of freight that is checked on ships and planes. Couple that opinion with other revelations this week.

Maritime security experts are sounding the alarm that the U.S. Coast Guard’s ships and aircraft are in such sorry shape that the service’s fleet (in comparison to fleets of other countries) ranks behind such naval powerhouses as Algeria and Pakistan. When was the last time you read a report of an enemy fleeing in terror from the Pakistani navy? Did you even suspect Pakistan had a navy? Would you feel safer if the Algerian navy was guarding our ports? I don’t think so.

The head of the House aviation subcommittee, Republican Rep. John Mica of Florida, called for an investigation into the Transportation Security Administration because of an excessive number of administrators at airports who have no job descriptions and are basically being paid for doing nothing. Now, if the administrators are doing nothing, who is keeping track of the security checkpoint personnel? Feel like getting on a plane anytime soon?

Heck, even if a terrorist is too lazy to smuggle something into the country by sea or air, we’re even providing built-in bombs. Security is so lax at our nation’s 1500 chemical plants that a security expert told a Congressional hearing: "Night security is better at most liquor stores than what you’ll find at our chemical plants." Indeed, a reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review was able to get into 30 chemical facilities and for the most part found no locks or other security devices and even had workers direct him to sensitive control rooms.

All this prompted Michael Chertoff, the new head of the Homeland Security to launch a massive reorganization of the department to put a priority on stopping catastrophic nuclear, chemical or biological attacks – or at least minimizing their damage. Excuse me, but what exactly has the Homeland Security department been doing since 9/11? They’re just now getting around to focusing on these "catastrophic" items? What’s the alert color signifying complete incompetence?

Which brings us to home loans (stay with me on this one). The FDIC, a federal agency, is helping illegal immigrants obtain home loans. Right across Lake Michigan in Wisconsin, the state housing agency is helping banks lend money to people who are in the United States illegally, the loans are backed by the FDIC, and the IRS is making this all possible by giving the illegals identification numbers so they can qualify for the loans (because they can’t legally get Social Security numbers). Since last April, Wisconsin has issued $12.2 million in such loans.

This is not only happening in Wisconsin, but in other states as well. People who are in this country illegally are getting loans for everything from homes to campers to cars. "There is a fundamental contradiction here," says James smith, a senior economist with the Rand Corporation. "We have one policy saying you can’t be here illegally…and another policy saying we’re going to cater to you."

In case you missed it, the key word in all of this is "ILLEGAL." When was the last time you applied for a loan and had to jump through myriad hoops to qualify: credit checks, cosigners, references, signing over of your first born as collateral. Question: How do you do a credit check on someone who is not supposed to be in this country in the first place? Another question: If you can’t even do a basic background check on a home loan applicant because no such records exist (BECAUSE THEY ARE ILLEGALLY IN THE COUNTRY), how can you be sure the person is not a terrorist?

I’m not anti-immigration. But my great grandfather came from another country and he never learned to read or write in any language and he still managed to become a U.S. citizen. It’s not too much to ask of a person applying for a government-backed home loan to get some sort of official status – citizenship, visa, worker permit, green card.

If this country doesn’t have the resources to secure its ports, airways, borders, and vulnerable infrastructure, then we should not be in the business of providing taxpayer financed home loans for people living outside the law. It’s just not right.

Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@gmail.com Read Neff Zone columns online at www.neffzone.com/cadillacnews .