Flashback: Seven 9/11 Hijackers Overstayed Visas Thanks to Wide Open Loophole

Seven of the 19 Islamic terrorists who hijacked commercial planes on September 11, 2001 and killed nearly 3,000 Americans were able to remain in the United States after overstaying their visas thanks to a wide open loophole that has yet to be closed.

In total, all 19 terrorists arrived in the U.S. legally as 16 secured tourist visas and three obtained business and student visas. Eventually, the September 11 attacks they executed left thousands of Americans dead and more than 6,000 others injured.

Seven of the 19 terrorists overstayed their visas either before the attacks or at the time of the attacks. Despite U.S. immigration law requiring their detainment and potential deportation, none were detained or deported.

The seven terrorists who overstayed their visas include:

• Hani Hasan Hanjour of Saudi Arabia
• Nawaf al-Hamzi of Saudi Arabia
• Mohamed Atta of Egypt
• Satam al-Suqami of Saudi Arabia
• Waleed al-Shehri of Saudi Arabia
• Marwan al-Shehhi of the United Arab Emirates
• Ahmed al-Ghamdi of Saudi Arabia

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), said in a statement that politicians in Washington, D.C. have yet to learn the lessons of the September 11 attacks.

“Twenty years ago, President George W. Bush ignored warnings about the threat of a terrorist attack on our soil and the dangers posed by lax immigration and border enforcement, and instead focused his efforts on providing amnesty to millions of illegal aliens,” Stein said:

Meanwhile, President Biden has eviscerated effective border enforcement policies he inherited when he took office and halted immigration enforcement in the interior of the country, providing newly emboldened global terrorist networks even greater opportunities to strike the United States.

The loophole the terrorists used to overstay their visas remains open despite warnings from the 9/11 Commission that a biometric entry/exit system is necessary to prevent future national security risks.

That same loophole remains readily used by hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals who fail to leave the U.S. after their visas have expired. In Fiscal Year 2019, for example, nearly 676,500 foreign nationals became illegal aliens when they overstayed their visas to stay in the U.S.

About half of all the nation’s 11 million to 22 million illegal aliens arrive on visas, but eventually overstay, and the majority are not deported by federal immigration officials.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.