Bensman: Let me just explain the way it works. A great example is Iran. We have plenty of Iranians who cross the southern border. But Iran as a state does not conduct terror attacks inside the United States, on the homeland. There are things that they do mostly having to do with espionage. So the intelligence community regards Iranians crossing the border as potential spies for the regime. And so there’s a higher risk for that. If they’re coming from a place like Yemen, which has a lot of Islamic terrorist organizations in it – some are fighting each other, some are fighting the government, whatever…– the issue then becomes, are they Islamic terrorists? The same with Syria and Iraq, Egypt and all countries that have Islamic terrorist organizations in them. That’s how the intelligence community looks at them. Now the bigger issue is what happens when they reach the border? Because most immigrants, illegal immigrants who are crossing the border without permission, as you know, show up without any form of identification. Think Somalia, which didn’t issue identification for like 30 years. They didn’t have birth certificates or driver licenses or anything. No government. So when a Somali shows up at the southern border and says ‘my name is Mickey Mouse, I was a victim of terrorists. I’m not a terrorist, I was a victim..’ That is now on us, as a nation, to vet for who they really are.
Ruben: Absolutely
Bensman: So the foundation of the whole enterprise, the homeland security enterprise, on that matter is often just to figure out who they are. You’re going from ground zero. Someone coming from a place that has lots of war lords, or war criminals… you know, from Africa or wherever, they’re showing up and saying ‘my name is Daffy Duck, believe me, believe me!