Immigration Expert: Dallas Ebola Patient 'Should Not Have Gotten a Visa'

“Our political class is not comfortable with the idea of using border control and immigration law to protect Americans,” immigration expert Mark Krikorian told Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon on Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot Radio. “They don’t really like the idea of keeping out people who want to come here.”

The Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) pointed out to Bannon, “The Ebola guy in Dallas (Thomas Erick Duncan) should never have gotten a visa even if he didn’t have Ebola. Even if he was completely healthy. He was a single guy who quit his job, has relatives here and has no money. Did anyone think he was going to go back?”

A CIS analyst gave five reasons that should have weighted against the issuance of a visa to Duncan:

1. He is single
2. Unemployed
3. Liberian (5th highest overstay rate of any country in the world)
4. Has recently resided outside of his country of citizenship, displaying weak ties there
5. Sister living in the United States.

“Heck the 9/11 Hijackers shouldn’t have gotten visas,” explained Krikorian. “They had no ties back home, they were young men with no real jobs. Even if they weren’t terrorists they would have been overstayers.”

Krikorian insist that regular immigration enforcement is crucial for a county to administer. “Even if you don’t know anything about terrorism, even if you don’t know anything about immigration enforcement, even if you don’t know anything about disease, or whatever, regular strict enforcement of immigration laws is one of the most important parts of protecting the country,” he said. “Good immigration control is one of those things we should do every day. And our political class just doesn’t like that idea.”

Executive Chairman Bannon asked, “Why don’t the political class like immigration control? Is it because they don’t want to be called Nativist? They don’t want to be called racists? Is it because they are Cosmopolitans? Or is there an economic underpinning to all this?”

Krikorian answered that the political class really see themselves as “citizens of the world.” He believes Obama does not see his job first and foremost as protecting the American people if protecting them means inconveniencing foreigners.

“Obama and many of our political elites, not just Democrats, not just liberals, libertarians and some business conservatives too, see themselves as citizens of the world,” he said. “The political class sees immigration controls and border controls as nuisances that need to be dialed down as much as they can get away with.”