Twenty-four years ago, America awoke to the most horrific attack on our homeland since Pearl Harbor.  A cloudless blue September morning was ripped apart by fire and steel, as two hijacked airliners slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.  In New York, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, firemen and police officers — all perished as the towers collapsed in fire and smoke.  In Washington, the Pentagon burned after another jet crashed into its western wall.  And in the skies above Pennsylvania, ordinary Americans on Flight 93 fought back, sacrificing their own lives to stop a fourth attack.

Nearly 3,000 innocent souls were murdered that day.  We remember their names etched into stone at Ground Zero, the faces in framed photos carried by loved ones, and the final voicemails left from inside burning towers: “I love you.  Tell the kids I love them.”  Each year, on this solemn anniversary, we bow our heads to honor their memory.

But remembrance alone is not enough.  To truly honor the fallen, we must act with resolve to ensure that nothing like September 11 ever happens again.  That requires more than simply fighting terrorists abroad — it requires fixing the broken immigration laws that allowed the 9/11 terrorists to come here in the first place.

The Root Cause: A Flawed Legal Immigration System

There is a common misconception that America’s immigration vulnerabilities stem only from illegal immigration.  But on September 11, 2001, not a single hijacker crossed our borders illegally.  Every one of the 19 terrorists entered the United States legally, most on visas granted under existing law.  They were al-Qaeda-affiliated, and came from countries embracing radical sharia law, or the law of Islam.

Fifteen of these murderous animals were citizens or Saudi Arabia, ostensibly our closest Sunni military ally in the Middle East.  Two more were from the United Arab Emirates.  One was from Egypt and one from Lebanon.

They exploited a system riddled with loopholes and guided by policies that failed to prioritize America’s security needs, and they embraced a philosophy, sharia law, that is by its nature at war with America and the United States Constitution.

This failure traces back to the 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration Act.  Prior to Hart-Celler, the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act gave preference to immigrants with skills beneficial to the United States and maintained quotas rooted in the needs of the country.  Hart-Celler upended that system.  It abolished national origin quotas, which previously favored European immigrants, and placed new emphasis on “family reunification,” creating the chain migration crisis we live with today, and dramatically increased immigration from regions with little historical assimilation into the American fabric.

In practice, Hart-Celler opened the doors to massive flows of immigration from parts of the world where radical ideologies — including sharia-based extremism — are widespread.  While not every immigrant from these regions is a threat, our laws gave us no effective way to screen or limit entries from nations where terrorism is incubated.  The 9/11 hijackers were not ghosts who slipped across deserts in the dead of night.  They walked through the front door because our laws invited them in.

Why Hart-Celler Failed America

The fundamental flaw of Hart-Celler is twofold:

1. Chain Migration: Instead of admitting immigrants based primarily on skills or alignment with America’s national interest, the law allows one immigrant to bring in a web of extended relatives.  This spiraling process has overwhelmed our ability to assimilate newcomers and monitor security risks.
    
2. Blind Regional Preferences: By dismantling older quotas, which had focused largely on immigration from Eurpoe,  Hart-Celler created an open spigot from countries with limited vetting capacity and higher exposure to radical ideologies.  The Act did nothing to provide safeguards against importing those who despise America’s freedoms yet seek to exploit its openness.

Twenty-four years after 9/11, we still live with these vulnerabilities.  Our refugee programs, student visas, and employment visas are exploited by those who use our generosity against us.  The lesson of 9/11 is clear: It is not just illegal immigration that threatens us.  It is a legal immigration system designed without regard for national security.

The Path Forward: Repeal and Replace

If we are serious about preventing another 9/11, we must be serious about repealing large portions of the Hart-Celler Act.  We should return to a framework closer to the 1952 model — one that puts America’s needs first, prioritizes national security, and restores rational limits.

That means:

Such reforms are about protecting our freedoms, ensuring that we never again allow our laws to be used as weapons against our people.

Honoring the Fallen with Action

On this anniversary of September 11, we pause to remember the firemen racing up smoke-filled stairwells, the office workers trapped in burning towers, the sailors and soldiers inside the Pentagon, the passengers of Flight 93 who chose courage over fear.  We remember their sacrifice.  But memory without resolve is hollow.

The best way to honor their lives is to act — to fix the laws that allowed their murderers to come here legally.  By reforming America’s immigration system, by repealing the dangerous provisions of the Hart-Celler Act, by ending sharia immigration, and by restoring an immigration policy rooted in security, merit, and America’s needs, we say with clarity: never again.

We owe it to the nearly 3,000 lives lost that day.  We owe it to the families who still grieve.  And we owe it to the generations yet unborn, who deserve to grow up in a nation safe, strong, and secure.

Don Brown, a former U.S. Navy JAG officer  and United States Senate candidate, is the author of the book Kangaroo Court: How Dirty Prosecutors and Sleazy Lawyers Destroy Political Opponents, Attack Free Speech, and Subvert the Constitution; “Travesty of Justice: The Shocking Prosecution of Lieutenant Clint Lorance; The Last Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II; and CALL SIGN EXTORTION 17: The Shootdown of SEAL Team Six.  He is also the author of 15 books on the United States military, including three national bestsellers, and is a Publisher’s Weekly National Bestseller.  He is one of four former JAG officers serving on the Lorance legal team.  Lorance was pardoned by President Trump in November 2019.  Brown is also a former military prosecutor and a former special assistant United States attorney and can be reached at don@brownfornc.com.

Image: Michael Foran via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.