Misleading Trump Admin Report Links Immigration, Terrorism

[DonViejo]

By Sam Thielman | January 16, 2018 2:39 pm

The Trump administration wants everyone to know that many of the people convicted by the U.S. of international terrorism weren’t born in America. That unsurprising finding, itself obtained through a brazen sleight of hand, is the key revelation in a new report released Tuesday by the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The ten-page paper was written in response to an executive order issued last year by President Donald Trump that directed the government to report numbers on foreigners in the U.S. who have been charged with terrorism. It aims to build support for the Trump administration’s strict immigration policies.

“This report reveals an indisputable sobering reality—our immigration system has undermined our national security and public safety,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a press release accompanying the report.

The report finds that of the 549 people convicted in the U.S. of international terrorism since 9/11, 402, or nearly three out of four, are “foreign-born.” But to get to that number, it includes foreigners who committed crimes on foreign soil before being extradited to the U.S. — cases which have no bearing on immigration issues.

Of course, that’s just the most obvious problem with the report. Michael German, formerly an FBI counterterrorism agent and now a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security program, said the report’s use of the term “international terrorism” exclusively refers to Muslim groups. Neo-Nazis, the Klan, anti-abortion terrorists and other terrorists, aren’t counted by the report as international terrorists even if they were foreign born.

more
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/misleading-trump-admin-report-links-immigration-terrorism

[moondust]

1. "convicted"

would likely not include Adam Lanza, the Vegas shooter, and a host of other DEAD terrorists.