Military Bases Don’t Do Criminal Checks

Criminal or immigration background checks are rarely conducted on civilians who regularly access U.S. military installations and could easily carry out terrorist attacks.

Had the simple checks been performed, authorities would have long ago arrested the recently charged Islamic militants who planned a deadly attack at the Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey as part of their jihad against the United States.

At least three of the six men are in the country illegally and have had several problems with the law, including numerous traffic violations, driver’s license suspensions and drug charges. One of the militants regularly accessed Fort Dix as a pizza deliveryman for a restaurant owned by his family.

Unfortunately, it took a sophisticated attack on the verge of being executed for lawmakers to acknowledge the major national security threat presented by illegal immigrants. Four New Jersey Congressmen have proposed mandatory background checks to prevent future terrorist plots at military installations.

The U.S. Representatives–Jim Saxton, Chris Smith, Rob Andrews and Frank LoBiondo – are pushing for criminal background checks and immigration status checks on a federal database for all civilians seeking entrance to military bases or Department of Defense installations.

The congressmen said they proposed similar legislation in 2003 after federal authorities arrested 21 illegal aliens working at Fort Dix and McGuire. The Department of Defense, however, discouraged such a law and it never passed.