The president should not let Latino voter outreach undermine anti-terrorism efforts

President Bush should strongly reconsider his politically expedient decision to allow illegal immigrants to attain visas without going through the necessary background checks required under normal circumstances.

Such background checks could have prevented illegal aliens from El Salvador from helping five 9/11 hijackers obtain false documents in Virginia.

Last August, once inside the country, at least five of the Arab terrorists hooked up in Arlington, Virginia, with a criminal underworld of illegal aliens from Latin America to receive false identification documents and establish phony addresses.

The president should further reconsider his ill-advised policy as a “gift” to Mexican President Vicente Fox, who tried to abolish the hemispheric mutual-defense treaty just before September 11, and who afterward was one of the few leaders in the world to refuse to offer solidarity with the US – until some strong arm-twisting from Washington.