Seven of the seventeen nine eleven hijackers should have been deported but weren’t due to them overstaying their Visas.
Nawaf al-Hamzi arrived back in the U.S. in 2001 and lived in New York for just a couple months before hijacking American Airlines Flight 77 and flying the plane into the Pentagon. A month before the 9/11 attacks, Nawaf al-Hamzi was placed on a terrorist watch list.
Nawaf al-Hamzi should have been deported nine months before the attack, as he had overstayed his visa.
Mohamed Atta — who hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and flew the plane into the World Trade Center’s North Tower — had overstayed his visa as of December 2000, but was not deported at the time. Atta was able to obtain a Florida driver’s license despite being arrested months before for driving without a license.
Atta’s name appeared on a terrorist watch list in January 2001 and he was detained in the United Arab Emirates before returning to the U.S. to carry out the 9/11 attacks.
Hani Hasan Hanjour, the terrorist pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that was flown into the Pentagon, was considered an illegal alien at the time of the 9/11 attacks, as he did not enroll in school despite obtaining a student visa in September of 2000.
Satam al-Suqami and Waleed al-Shehri, likewise, had overstayed their visas in the U.S. before aiding in the Flight 11 hijacking and Twin Towers terrorist attack.
Marwan al-Shehhi — the terrorist responsible for flying United Airlines Flight 175 into the World Trade Center’s South Tower — took at least three trips out of the U.S. and back to the country despite having overstayed his visa as of November 2000. Al-Shehhi was also able to obtain a Florida driver’s license.
Ahmed al-Ghamdi, one of the Flight 175 hijackers, was in the U.S. illegally, as he had overstayed his visa but was never deported, allowing him to hijack the flight and aid in flying the plane into the South Tower in Manhattan.
This is an import aspect of our immigration debate that nobody talks about. Whenever the discussion of deportations come up the entire narrative is surrounding the feelings of the illegals. It is unarguable that poor immigration laws lead to a more dangerous country. These 9/11 hijackers should’ve been deported and had they been it may have never happened.
