Like most of you, I have been following the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year old Nigerian man who attempted to ignite a bomb on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. As facts begin to emerge, we can now start to discuss the immigration issues that arise in the case. There seem to be more questions than answers at this point and no doubt Department of Homeland Security and Department of State officials are reviewing how Mr. Abdulmutallab was able to fly to the United States. Here are some initial questions.

1.In May 2009, Abdulmutallab's UK visa was revoked when it was learned that the university he claimed he was attending was fictitious. He was placed on a British watch list after that. Why is information like this not shared between countries, especially close allies?

2. Abdulmutallab's father, a well-respected finance official in Nigeria, reported on November 19th to the US Embassy that his son was involved in radical Islamic activities in Yemen. The report was deemed credible enough to open an investigation and the Embassy notified other Embassies and the US counterterrorism community. Why was Abdulmutallab's visa at least not suspended until at least the investigation of the claim was completed?

3. Abdulmutallab bought his airline ticket in Ghana on December 16th with almost $3000 cash and gave no contact information. How did this not raise alarm bells?

4. On December 24th, he boarded an international flight with no luggage. How was this very suspicious behavior not noticed?

5. Abdulmutallab's name was placed in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, the American government's terror watch list. 550,000 names are on that list. However, despite being added to that list, Abdulmutallab's visa remained unaffected and individuals on this list are permitted to fly and are not subject to secondary screening. Why?

6. Lagos, Nigeria has a notoriously insecure airport. Why did the Amsterdam airport fail to properly re-screen a passenger coming from that location? I just flew out of Amsterdam last month and all flight screening is done at each gate by private contractors. The US has done away with using private contractors for airport security and screening is centralized in each terminal. Should the US impose tighter standards on allowing planes in to US airspace if passengers are not going through more rigorous checks?

EIght years have passed since 9/11. At the beginning of this crisis, the government claimed that it needed time to get computer systems in place and to work on data sharing arrangements so that it could more effectively prevent incidents of just the sort that happened last week. If there is anything positive to come from this scary event, it at least has reminded us that we still have a lot of work to do. 

Of course, rather than focusing on trying to prevent terrorists from getting on airplanes, it seems like our government has reacted by imposing silly rules that will not make us safer. Making passengers show up four hours before a flight to check in, barring carry on bags and then asking passengers to sit for an hour before landing without even being able to read a book will only make traveling so unpleasant that people will do anything possible to avoid air travel (which I suppose is a way to reduce the odds of being a victim of terrorism since out of business airlines don't fly planes).

You can also assume that the extreme xenophobes will call on us to ban foreign tourists to keep us safe. If you think that the recession of the last year has been fun, that's a solution you'll find appealing.

New York Times religion reporter Samuel G. Freedman wrote an interesting article over the weekend on efforts in the pro-immigration community to reach out to African-Americans largely through the enlistment of support from African-American clergy. Some in the anti-immigrant camp have sought to sew the seeds of division by trying to convince African-Americans that immigrants are unfair competitors for jobs. The goal is to put a human face on immigration and focus on common bonds between the Latino and African-American communities.

 
Often, when there is a great concentration of businesses focused on a specific industry in a particular geographic location, the area is called the "Silicon Valley" of and then you fill in the blank. That's a tribute to Silicon Valley in Northern California which is the home to many of America's great tech companies - Google, Apple, Intel, etc. For example, Charlotte is the Silicon Valley of banking. Nashville is the Silicon Valley of hospital firms.

Well, it turns out the actual Silicon Valley is the Silicon Valley for America's ping-pong talent. All of those immigrant tech workers who came on H-1Bs are doing more than starting up companies that employ millions of Americans. It turns out their kids are going to make America top competitors in the sport the Chinese currently dominate. How sweet will it be if an American kid takes gold in London in 2012?

The New York Times has a front page story this morning on  the Ping-Pong Boom in Silicon Valley and reports on several immigrant kids who are at the top of the rankings in America. A number of these kids would make excellent Immigrant of the Day subjects and when the 2012 Olympics roll around, I suspect I'll be writing about them.

But today I honor the Indian-born man who is helping to make this possible. Rajul Sheth is a former competitor for the Indian national team and is the coordinator of the table tennis program sponsored by the Indian community in Silicon Valley, but which has kids of a variety of nationalities participating. His team includes 100 teenagers including Ariel Hsing, the country's top-ranked junior player. Sheth's program employs top coaching talent from China and Sweden (also a world power house in ping pong).

From the AP:

Immigration officials have accused a Southern California pastor of helping foreigners fraudulently obtain student visas and handing out phony diplomas at a fake graduation ceremony on a campus where they never attended class.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday that 65-year-old pastor Samuel Chai Cho Oh surrendered to authorities Tuesday.

Officials say Oh is accused of conspiracy to commit visa fraud for allegedly charging between $600 and $10,000 to help foreigners get visas on the premise they would attend the Christian university he owns in Fullerton.

Authorities say Oh acknowledged that 75 percent of the 300 students at California Union University did not regularly attend class.