The United States has awarded green cards to nearly 300,000 foreign nationals from countries where the September 11, 2001 hijackers came from since 2002.
On September 11, 2001, 19 Islamic terrorists murdered nearly 3,000 Americans in a terrorist plot that targeted New York City and Washington, D.C. Fifteen of the hijackers arrived in the U.S. with visas from Saudi Arabia while the others came from Lebanon, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data shows that since the year after the September 11 terrorist attacks, about 283,000 foreign nationals from 9/11 hijacker countries have been given green cards to eventually secure naturalized American citizenship.
The data shows the extent to which the federal government has made little-to-no change to the rate at which it delivers green cards to foreign nationals arriving from terrorist-prone countries.
For instance, in the year after 9/11, about 10,300 foreign nationals from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates were given green cards to permanently resettle in the U.S. By 2006, that number had grown to more than 17,100 foreign nationals given green cards.
In 2019, the last year from which data is available, more than 16,100 foreign nationals from 9/11 hijacker countries were awarded green cards.
Current legal immigration levels, which have gone unchanged for nearly three decades, bring about 1.2 million legal immigrants on green cards to the U.S. annually. In addition, about 1.4 million foreign nationals arrive on various temporary visa programs.
As Breitbart News noted, seven of the 9/11 hijackers arrived in the U.S. on visas and eventually overstayed their visas before or at the time of the terrorist attacks. These hijackers were supposed to have been detained or deported after overstaying their visas but never were.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.