Countering Terrorist Mobility: Shaping an Operational Strategy
Making terrorist mobility a central U.S. counterterrorism focus will require better management and coordination across intelligence, border, and immigration agencies.
This report by Susan Ginsburg, former Senior Counsel of the 9/11 Commission, examines how counterterrorism strategy relates to border security and immigration reform, and how terrorist mobility should be countered. The author argues that terrorist mobility—although clearly linked to the phenomenon of global migration—comprises a set of problems distinct from the challenges of controlling large-scale immigration to the United States. Based on this premise, she calls for the need to establish a terrorist mobility strategy as a distinct component of counterterrorism policies and tactics. The report outlines key elements of an effective terrorist mobility strategy and provides recommendations for carrying out its priorities.
The proposed strategy aims to deter, exploit, and defend against terrorist mobility thorough eight actions: establishing high standards of knowledge, targeting terrorist travel facilitators, attacking illicit travel networks, investing in the ability to track terrorists en route, improving terrorist detection within the legal immigration system, denying terrorist access through illegal entry channels, creating a systematic approach to constraining terrorist mobility, and strengthening preventative measures through post-attack analysis.
The author makes the case that effective implementation of such a strategy will require new arrangements within the government—specifically, narrowing the historical foreign-domestic divide in government management, bridging the immigration/intelligence/law enforcement divides, and integrating state and local officials into a broad national effort to develop and apply terrorist mobility information.
Table of Contents
Introduction
I. Defining Terrorist Mobility
II. Purposes of a Strategy for Constraining Terrorist Mobility
III. Elements of a Terrorist Mobility Strategy
IV. Direction, Management, and Organization of a Terrorist Mobility Strategy
V. National Strategic and Statutory Framework
VI. Conclusion
About the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future
This high-level, bipartisan task force developed a comprehensive post-9/11 blueprint to redesign the U.S. immigration system with flexibility, smart enforcement, and a robust integration policy.
About the U.S. Immigration Policy Program
The U.S. Immigration Policy Program provides analysis of U.S. immigration pathways, the impacts of enforcement and other policies, and the characteristics of immigrant populations.
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