Thousands of illegal immigrants have entered the United States, including 698 potential terrorists, because of a loophole in our immigration policy, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

The loophole allows them to secure temporary residency status, which gives them the right to obtain a job and likely remain in the United States long term.

“Unlike refugees, who are screened before coming to the United States and can be denied refugee status before they enter this country, aliens who enter illegally and claim a “credible fear” of persecution have not been screened before physically entering the United States,” the report said.

“The process for screening those individuals after they enter the United States is vulnerable to fraud and abuse.”

“Information disclosed to Congress indicates that 299 aliens to whom the terrorism bar to asylum eligibility may apply were found to have a credible fear in the first four months of FY 2015 and that 399 aliens to whom the terrorism bar to asylum eligibility may apply were found to have a credible fear in FY 2014,” said former immigration judge Andrew R. Arthur who wrote the report.

“While the nature and circumstances of those terrorism allegations are not clear, these facts raise additional concerns that other individuals who have connections to terrorist activity or organizations have attempted to seek asylum through the credible-fear process.”

Many are coming from countries that have a known history of harboring terrorists.

“While the bulk of the credible fear claims nationally between October 2014 and September 2015 were made by aliens from Central America and Mexico, 80 were made by Syrian nationals, 191 by Pakistani nationals, and 776 by Somali nationals. Many of the aliens who have come to the United States from outside the Western Hemisphere followed identified smuggling routes from South America.”

The report also details that we currently do not have enough immigration judges and jails to handle the abundance of our immigration cases.

From the report:

“The immigration courts, which receive aliens’ claims after they have been found to have a credible fear, face similar resource limitations. As of February 2017, there were 542,411 cases pending before 302 immigration judges, or just less than 1,800 cases per judge. This problem is compounded by the fact that many claims, particularly claims from the same country, can have similar facts.”

Among the findings:

• Expedited removal is intended to facilitate the removal of aliens who entered illegally or through fraud, and who are apprehended at entry or who have been in the United States for a limited period of time. If an alien successfully asserts a credible fear, however, the alien will likely remain in the United States indefinitely.
• The number of asylum applications received by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has increased significantly in recent years, from 56,912 in FY 2014, to 84,236 in FY 2015, to 115,888 in FY 2016.
• Aliens with ties to terrorist organizations have attempted to enter illegally and claim asylum fraudulently. Hundreds of aliens to whom the terrorist bar to asylum may apply have been found to have a credible fear.

There is a major need for securing our border. Experts continue to argue that the United States can fix many of its problems by simply enforcing all of the laws already on the books rather than wasting $70 billion on a wall that guarantees nothing.