Federal law enforcement officials are touting their capture of Amine El Khalifi as a success, but the case emphasizes how a failure to enforce illegal immigration laws increased the likelihood of a terrorist attack on the United States.
Morroccan-born El Khalifi, 29, of Alexandria, Va. is the latest in a string of alleged terrorists whose warning signs were largely ignored. Late last month, the FBI arrested El Khalifi amid an alleged attempt to launch a suicide bombing of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
FBI agents posing as al-Qaida operatives provided the terror suspect with an inoperable automatic firearm and a suicide vest filled with inert explosives. The FBI monitored him around the clock and arrested him when it was clear he was going forward with his plot.
He may have been captured sooner had law enforcement been more vigilant.
The suspect has been living in this country illegally since 1999 on an expired visitor’s visa and previously had been stopped by police for several traffic violations between 2002 and 2006.
And his former landlord, Frank Dynda, who evicted El Khalifi from his building in 2010 for failing to pay rent, told the press that he alerted local police the that he suspected the Morroccan of bomb-making.
“He was getting mysterious packages labeled ‘books,’ but I didn’t think there were books in them,” Dynda told The Washington Post.
The police told the landlord to leave him alone.
El Khalifi should have been deported from the United States more than a decade ago when his visa expired. And local law enforcement should have taken his landlord’s concerns about El Khalifi’s bomb-making more seriously.
Sting operations like the one that nabbed El Khalifi make for a great show, but ultimately don’t make America any safer. The unfortunate truth is there are individuals living in this country and abroad who are actively working to do serious harm to Americans. The FBI and law enforcement in general need to keep a better eye on potential terrorists by ensuring critical red flags like overstayed visas and warnings from neighbors are not ignored.
