The recent arrest of Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bombing suspect, has reopened the debate on immigration and national security. Shahzad is an immigrant from Pakistan went to school in the U.S. on a student visa and obtained an H-1B visa in 2002 before gaining citizenship. He slipped through not because of the laxity of our immigration laws, but partly because of their strictness. Immigration authorities’ time would be better spent going after guys like Shazhad, rather than landscapers without the proper papers.
Nevertheless, politicians are seeking to score national security points. For instance, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) has introduced a bill to strip terror suspects of their citizenship and ship them to Guantanamo. Fundamentally changing the nature of American rules and rights regarding citizenship will do nothing to increase security, and erode civil liberties. So what to do instead?
