Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) dogged support for illegal aliens and open borders has left the United States vulnerable to terrorists. This has not gone unnoticed by ISIS, also known as ISIL and IS, which reportedly is prepared to launch terrorist operations in the United States from across the southern border.
Unlike McCain, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey recognizes our vulnerability: "Because of open borders and immigration issues, it [ISIS] is an immediate threat," Dempsey said at a Department of Defense press conference. In addition, according to Saudi King Abdullah, the threat posed by ISIS to the United States is imminent. Speaking to newly appointed ambassadors to Saudi Arabia, Abdullah warned that if the United States ignores the ISIS threat, it could face terror attacks within two months.
In spite of this, McCain has never accepted the fact that securing the southern border is a national security priority. According to his own statements, he only allowed border control provisions to be added to the Senate's Gang of Eight immigration reform bill (S.744) in order to gain additional Republican votes in the Senate and attempt to get the House to pass it.
After the bill passed the Senate, McCain made it clear that he never intended for the border control provisions of the Senate bill to take effect, as reflected by a headline in Politico which read "Immigration bill: John McCain says 'border surge' isn't certain". The accompanying article reported that:
During an immigration forum hosted by the AFL-CIO Tuesday, McCain – a key Senate Gang of Eight negotiator – said while a pathway to citizenship for the nation's undocumented immigrants is a "fundamental element" of the bill, the "rest of it could be adjusted." He singled out the border security parts as an example.
In addition, by helping pass the Gang of Eight bill with no intention of controlling the southern border, McCain prevented the House from enacting a strong, stand-alone border control bill because everyone knew that he would use a conference committee to gut it or replace it with a stripped down, open-borders version of the Gang of Eight bill.
Furthermore, while McCain has consistently advocated for the use of American military force, including boots on the ground, in countries around the world, he has never supported using the U.S. military to defend the southern border from incursions by individuals and groups who would bring their terror and wars directly to the United States.
So, McCain has guaranteed that the southern border remains vulnerable to any terrorist wishing to exploit that means of entering the United States; so wide open, in fact, that tens of thousands of unaccompanied children and a man dressed as Osama bin Laden can simply walk across it without any difficulty whatsoever.
The fruits of McCain's efforts can be seen in the reported pre-positioning of ISIS terrorists on the Mexican side of the border with car bombs ready to go and by Texas Governor Rick Perry's (R) recent assertion that there is a very real possibility that ISIS terrorists have already crossed the porous southern border since no one knows who is coming across that border.
While assertions that ISIS is pre-positioning or has already crossed the southern border may be challenged, what is certain is that McCain has provided ISIS with unfettered access to the United States for both its personnel and their weapons of death and destruction. Should ISIS or some other terrorist group take advantage of McCain's welcome mat, he will only have himself to blame as he goes in the eyes of many from war hero to collaborator.