All of the 9/11 terrorists had arrived in the U.S. legally, often by successfully defrauding immigration authorities. Sixteen of the terrorists secured tourist visas, while three obtained business and student visas.
On September 11, 2001, the terrorists carried out the largest terrorist attack in American history, flying planes into the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City; flying a plane into the Pentagon in Washington, DC; and attempting to fly United Airlines Flight 93 into the U.S. Capitol Building until brave passengers foiled the plan.
United Flight 93 ultimately crashed in an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The terrorist attacks killed 2,977 Americans and left countless more with lasting illnesses that have caused their deaths.
Seven of the terrorists overstayed their visas either before the attacks or at the time of the attacks. Failures in federal immigration enforcement ensured that none of the seven were deported from the United States before the attacks were carried out.
The terrorists who overstayed their visas are:
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- Hani Hasan Hanjour of Saudi Arabia
- Nawaf al-Hamzi of Saudi Arabia
- Mohamed Atta of Egypt
- Satam al-Suqami of Saudi Arabia
- Waleed al-Shehri of Saudi Arabia
- Marwan al-Shehhi of the United Arab Emirates
- Ahmed al-Ghamdi of Saudi Arabia
The 9/11 Commission Staff Report, published in 2004, warned that the lack of an entry-exit monitoring system to track visa overstays had contributed to many of the terrorists being able to remain in the United States despite having no legal basis to do so.
“… while the hijackers were preparing for the planes operation in the United States, immigration authorities had no way to determine whether any of them had overstayed their visas or traveled in and out of the country,” the report details. “The lack of an entry-exit system was especially significant for Satam al Suqami and Nawaf al Hazmi…”
Trump’s State Department is planning a crackdown on visa overstays that would require bonds of up to $15,000 for foreign nationals traveling to the United States on B-1/B-2 tourist and business visas from a select group of countries with high overstay rates.
Visa holders would only receive their bonds back once they have departed the United States.
According to the latest visa overstay report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which covers most of 2023, about 400,000 foreign nationals overstayed their visas and failed to depart the United States when they were supposed to.
Several countries have business and tourist visa overstay rates that exceed 20 percent, including Burma, Chad, the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, and Haiti.
DHS has long estimated that about half of the nation’s 11 million to 22 million illegal aliens arrived on visas but eventually overstayed those visas.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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