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A Terrorism Prevention Imperative: Psychological Evaluations for All Immigrants:

A Terrorism Prevention Imperative: Psychological Evaluations for All Immigrants: Psychological evaluations of immigration applicants have been widely used for over two decades in the U.S. Federal legal system. The principal purpose of these assessments was and remains to assist immigration authorities in making determinations regarding the status of applicants of various categories. This article proposes that the same evaluations conducted to help adjudicate asylum petitions, removal proceedings, and inadmissibility hearings are also essential vetting devices for terrorism prevention. The systematic application of the now elective psychological evaluations for immigration courts to all immigrants could help identify would-be terrorists and help law enforcement prevent future attacks on the United States. Keywords psychological evaluations, immigration, terrorism prevention worldwide have all but secured for terrorist organizations fer- Introduction tile grounds for recruitment of would-be terrorists among the Immigration and terrorism had risen to public attention in many disaffected and disenfranchised members of oppressed recent times and frequently become central topics in political societies and countries (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2007, 2014). discourse of both domestic and international policy. While On the contrary, the United States and its major geopo- largely distinct and different geopolitical processes, one litical allies in the western world have been engaged in an involving the movement of people mostly into the United ongoing war against terrorism since after September 11, States and the other involving guerilla-type warfare waged 2001. And although the names of the terrorist organiza- against the United States among others, often they come to tions, from Al-Qaeda to ISIS, have changed over time, as be considered in conjunction with one another. And not with- have the stated goals and origins for the armed conflict out reason. Both immigration and terrorism have become in with the United States and its Western allies, the presence recent years formidable challenges for law enforcement and of terrorist threats has not waned in the least. In fact, the for policy makers alike (Searl, Schwartz, Beck, Diza, & danger of terrorist attacks upon the United States in the Minich, 2017). homeland have all but increased, with the advent of online Immigration of large numbers of undocumented persons recruitment of what have come to be dubbed “home- and asylum seekers has commanded increasing attention with grown-terrorists” (Searl et al., 2017). This threat has been the most notably ongoing war in Syria and the ongoing drug only magnified with infiltration of would-be terrorists into war in countries south of the U.S. border. But not exclusively. the United States, often disguised as refugees and innocent The considerable number of humans around the globe living immigrants. The challenge for immigration authorities and under oppressive political regimes, with virtually no protec- for law enforcement agencies then is to strike a delicate tion to members of minority groups of all kinds, combined balance between allowing the flow of humans in and out of with even larger numbers of humans living in poverty and the country and preventing terrorists from establishing hopelessness, have all added to the magnitude of the migra- tion problem. The pressures upon local populations produced by these conflicts and conditions, with the devastation that Counseling Center of Santa Monica – A Psychological Corporation, CA, USA they wreak upon the personal lives, safety, economy, and civil Corresponding Author: life of citizens of many nations, intensified the desire to Reuben Vaisman-Tzachor, 1731 Barry Avenue, #112, Los Angeles, CA escape and find safe havens in the United States and else- 90025, USA. where (Arandra, 2016). These same deplorable conditions Email: vavnik@hotmail.com Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 SAGE Open bases of operation within the United States. This challenge the United States illegally prior to or in conjunction with tak- so far has been daunting, to say the least. ing part in terrorist activity. Of the 59 terrorists who violated immigration law, most (84%) committed multiple immigra- tion violations. Noteworthy is that even after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, and subsequent tightening of scrutiny of The Modern Nexus of Immigration and immigrants, 50% of terrorists who entered the United States Terrorism before the attacks were able to stay, and continue their activi- The flow of refugees from war-torn countries into the United ties thereafter unabated. Finally, there were more terrorists States is not a new historical phenomena. In fact, thousands who were able to acquire immigration status even after 9/11, of immigrants from all continents flowed during the last hun- and to enter the United States with nary a question. dred years to America from regions afflicted by civil wars The most common entry process for the terrorists counted and from nations engulfed in armed conflicts. Ordinarily, the by Kephart (2005) involved abuse of temporary visas: 18 ter- majority of these people were accepted into the fold of rorists entered with student visas, four terrorists received American society and processed through immigration acts approval to study in the United States, and 17 terrorists adopted for their purpose, allowing subsequent naturaliza- obtained a visitor visa—either tourist (B2) or business (B1). tion (Conde, 1999; Pitti, Castaneda, & Cortes, 2004). Of those who entered with temporary visas, at least 13 terror- Increasingly since the 1990s, however, the potential for hun- ists abused them by overstaying beyond their time limit. In dreds and perhaps thousands of terrorists flowing into the addition, 34 would-be terrorists captured during the time United States under the guise of either asylum seekers or per- studied were charged with making false statements to an sons seeking to reunite with their families already in the immigration official. Of those, there were 11 instances of United States has become an ominous reality. passport fraud and 10 instances of visa fraud. In 17 other The national commission on the 9/11 terrorist attacks cases, terrorists disguised as asylum seekers by claiming to upon the United States, for example (Kean et al., 2004), lack proper travel documents at their port of entry. identified the infiltration of Nawaf al Hazmi, Khalid al Once in the United States, terrorists continued to use Mihdhar, and other Al-Qaeda operatives in 2000 to California fraud as means to facilitate their stay, or to “embed,” in the as a prelude to the infamous September 11, 2001, attacks on country. Seven terrorists were indicted for acquiring or using the United States. It noted that while Hazmi and Mihdhar various forms of fake identification, including driver’s were ill-prepared for a mission in the United States (neither licenses, birth certificates, social security cards, and false had spent any time in the West and neither spoke much, if immigration arrival records. Most notably, 23 terrorists any English), their devotion to Al-Qaeda and their ability to sought to legally naturalize despite fraudulent entries, and of obtain valid U.S. visas were crucial qualifications to carry those 20 foreign terrorists became naturalized U.S. citizens. out their ultimate plot (2004). Noteworthy here is the lack of Out of additional 23 terrorists, 16 became legal permanent meaningful vetting conducted upon visa applicants before residents, often by marrying an American. There were at the 2001 attacks; a practice that has not substantially changed least nine recorded sham marriages during that time period thereafter, despite authorities claims to the contrary. (Kephart, 2005). And while the number of terrorists among In similar fashion, the piloting of the commercial air- the millions of other undocumented and documented immi- planes that would ultimately crash into the New York twin grants is minuscule, their negative effects upon the security towers was heralded by the entry in the Summer of 2000 of our nation cannot be overstated. through the Newark, New Jersey, international airport (with After the December 2010 “Arab Spring” and concurrent valid U.S. visas, of course) of Marwan al Shehhi and emergence of the Islamic State as a player in the Middle East, Mohamed Atta (also known as the “Hamburg Cell,” after however, the flow of immigrants into the United States their indoctrination origins). They soon joined other became an even greater source of alarm for immigration and Al-Qaeda counterparts Ziad Jarrah in a flight school in Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials alike. The Venice, Florida, and later with Zacarias Moussaoui and Ihab collapse of many Middle East countries’ centralized govern- Ali in another flight school in Norman, Oklahoma (Kean ment (e.g., Lybia, Syria, Yemen) created an even more com- et al., 2004). The fact that both Atta and al Shehhi were plex and challenging environment within which immigration German residents was all that was needed to secure a student authorities, U.S. consulates, and U.S. embassies operate. The visa for entry into the United States, no questions asked. But, task of U.S. officials to validate documents of would-be refu- what if their application process also required a psychologi- gees and ascertain the testimonies given by immigrants cal evaluation? What could have been learned about them applying for visas from such countries became virtually that could have prevented the attacks? impossible. It also meant that the flow of new immigrants In one study, Kephart (2005) counted 94 terrorists who almost certainly included many evildoers who slipped came into the United States as immigrants between 1990 and through the broken system of checks and balances ordinarily 2004, and who eventually conducted terrorist attacks in the not designed to catch such persons (Zakem, Meszaros, homeland. Her study found that 63% of those terrorists entered Scism, & McGee, 2012). Vaisman-Tzachor 3 In a 2016 report published by staffers of Senators Jeff recruiters disguised as clergy or refugees (Kis-Benedek, Sessions (R-Ala.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), they counted 580 2016). convictions of terrorists who acted within the United States When movement of persons from terrorist-prone nations in recent years. Of those convicted of terrorist acts, at least to previously unaffected countries becomes sizable, it can 380 or over 65% of these were foreign-born. Further illus- more readily spread terrorism regardless of the motives of trating the growing demand to address the nexus of immigra- the people migrating. This is largely because typical charac- tion and terrorism comes a statement of former FBI director teristics of persons from current terror-prone communities Comey (2015). In a statement before the House Committee and nations make them ideal vehicles for the spread of this on Homeland Security in Washington, D.C., on October 21, scourge. Migrants from terror-prone nations carry on across 2015, then FBI director James B. Comey estimated that at international borders with them ideological, cultural, and least 250 Americans traveled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIL ethnic heritage of their native countries onto their host (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) or ISIS (Islamic State nations. And although most migrants’ basic cultural, reli- of Iraq and Syria). By his estimates, at least half of them have gious, and ethnic heritage is not particularly radical nor vio- since returned from the fight and are back in the homeland, lent, it still forms the foundation upon which radical terrorism preparing to strike (Comey, 2015). It is therefore reasonable is based (Nicholson, 2010). to suggest, that the process by which persons traveling into Research shows that migrants from terrorist-prone nations the United States does not adequately screen for the potential inevitably transplant intellectual networks and cultural com- risk of terrorism, as so many have managed to enter unabated. munities that more readily accommodated the existence of More recently, research focused on the empirical connec- terrorism in their native countries, to their host nations. The tion between immigration and terrorism has yielded some formation of close and interrelated expatriate communities in interesting, albeit alarming results. A 2016 study by Bove the host nations which resemble in essence their country of and Bohmelt correlated terrorist activity in 175 countries origin are then easily exploited for radicalization and recruit- receiving immigration with the numbers of immigrants from ment by terrorists from similar backgrounds. Indeed, terror- areas with high levels of terrorist activity and recruitment ist have long-used communities of first- and second-generation exists, over a 30-year period. They found a positive and sta- migrants in host nations as places to hide their presence and tistically significant correlation between the rise of terrorism blend in, as operational bases to originate terrorist attacks, as in those 175 countries receiving immigrants from areas with recruitment centers, and as hubs for their radicalization high levels of terrorist activity and recruitment, and the rise efforts. In so doing, terrorists have managed to expand their in numbers of immigrants from such areas. Searl et al. (2017) reach into other nations and regions and to recruit new found similar empirical data that unequivocally support the migrants, in places they had no hold in before. They do so by notion that increased terrorism in host countries corresponds exploiting the social capital created in the migrant communi- with increased migration from terror-prone nations and ties to make ideological inroads into the native population regions where terrorist organizations recruit new members. (Kis-Benedek, 2016). There are other ways in which terrorist organizations, most of whom emanate from Muslim and Arab countries, exploit migrant communities to infiltrate into mostly Western The Mechanisms by Which host nations. Generally, the Muslim and Arab diaspora are Immigration Allows Terrorism seen by members of Western host nations as different and Penetration distinct from their own populace. Therefore, Muslim and It is important to recognize that by and large, immigrants do Arab migrants often feel ostracized from or perceive them- not move to other countries to bring terrorism, especially if selves substantially alienated from mainstream Western host escaping it in their countries of origin. It is also equally societies, and have diminished opportunities for assimila- important to understand that some immigrants intend to do tion. Consequently, they are more vulnerable to recruitment exactly that, namely bring terror with them. Considering the and radicalization efforts by terrorist organizations bent on carnage of thousands of victims on 9/11 by a relatively small exploiting socially marginal individuals and groups. group of immigrants, and the many additional successful Additional empirical research indicates that where sig- attacks by individual terrorists over the years since, the con- nificant number of migrants have largely failed to assimilate cern for terrorism penetration is substantial. Likewise, even into mainstream Western societies, they remain vulnerable to though majority of migrants are only looking for a better life recruitment and radicalization efforts by terrorist networks. in a new country, their movement facilitates the spread of This, because unassimilated persons in Western societies are terrorism by establishing a physical link between the terror- more prone to feelings of deprivation and discontent fostered prone source and the receiving nations (Bove & Bohmelt, by their marginal circumstances (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2007). 2016). These physical links are exploited not only by well- Hence, despite the good intentions of the majority of migrants known terrorists, as their cross-nation movement is more and nations that host them, terrorist organizations take full likely to be detected, but also by less known terrorism advantage of the communities that migrants create to 4 SAGE Open promote their radical agendas vis-a-vis disaffected individu- Consequently, these countries “export” through migration als (Searl et al., 2017). an inordinate amount of both freedom seekers as well as dis- A perfect example of these effects is represented in the proportionate number of terrorists to the Western world com- recruitment of a dozen terrorists that carried out the Barcelona pared with other nations. Often times those two categories, and Cambrils, Spain, attacks in August, 2017. Together they freedom seekers and would-be terrorists, cannot be effec- killed 14 and wounded over 80 others. Most of the victims tively distinguished during the immigration process. This is died or were injured after being run over by a van while true, because some of the previously freedom seekers ema- strolling on Las Ramblas, the main pedestrian boulevard in nating from Muslim and/or Arab countries end up becoming Barcelona. By all accounts, members of the cell were all recruited and/or radicalized only after migrating and reach- migrants of Morocco nationality who grew up together in the ing their Western country destination (Searl et al., 2017). town of Ripoll, in Catalonia. The terrorist cell comprised Typically, the radicalization of formerly freedom seekers to four groups of siblings and a few others who all knew each would-be “home-grown” or “lone-wolf” attackers occurs in other to some degree; most attended the same local high the Western countries only some years after migration and school before they were recruited, and most were employed not immediately upon arrival. locally. The young men, most of them were not even 25 years This fact suggests a mediating factor or factors that play old, were not particularly religious, and none of them lived in an important role in the process of radicalization to would-be poverty, or had a significant criminal record before recruit- terrorists. Research conducted by the author for the U.S. ment to become terrorists. An exception was the ring leader government between 2002 and 2004 and subsequent declas- and mastermind of the cell, Mr. Abdelbaki Essati (Strange, sified portions published (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, Babcock, & Evans, 2017). 2012a) reveals particular psychological factors that facilitate Mr. Essati, who at the time of his death in the explosion of the recruitment and radicalization process. The most promis- the makeshift bomb-making facility in a vacant house in the ing and useful aspect of the terrorist psychological profile Catalan town of Alcanar, was 45 years old, had a criminal developed is a characteristic narcissistic character. It seems record. In 2010, Mr. Essati was jailed for 4 years for smug- to interact fairly well for disaffected and marginal migrants gling Hashish between Morocco and Spain and while in from Arab and Muslim majority nations recruitment to ter- prison became close to one of the ringleaders behind the rorism. The individual’s internal rationale, colored by their Madrid bombings (Horton, Strange, Rothwell, & Yorke, particular personality traits, can be subsumed under the fol- 2017). Upon the end of his term in prison, Mr. Essati was set lowing hypothetical example: to be deported to Morocco as is customary law in Spain for Before migrating: foreign nationals who were convicted of serious crimes for “I cannot give expression to my uniqueness under the oppressive which prison sentences were longer than 1 year. In 2014, regime of the country of origin. I therefore have to migrate to a however, Mr. Essati appealed his expulsion and managed to liberal place where I can give full expression to my specialness.” overturn the Spanish court ruling by arguing it would breach his human rights. He subsequently sought a job as a preacher After a few years in the liberal destination: in the mosque in the Catalan town of Ripoll, where he pro- ceeded to recruit the young men to become terrorists (Rubin, “Unfortunately in the liberal, open society nobody notices my Kingsley, & Karasz, 2017). The primary recruitment tool he specialness. I am narcissistically injured by that. I want to retaliate utilized involved bestowing the young recruits special treat- so that everyone will finally notice me. I have to do something ment that involved individualized trips with him to Morocco, spectacular that is in keeping with my special identity.” Belgium, and other towns in Spain. Remark: For a comprehensive discussion, the reader is encouraged to study the author’s previous publications on The Process of Radicalization and Its this topic. Relevance to Terrorism Prevention The case of Uzbek nationals should serve as an example: The vast majority of terrorists come from countries where In October 2017, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, an Uzbek political and religious oppression is a fact of life. The highest national, drove a rental truck into the crowd on a bike path representation of such countries is among Muslim majority in lower Manhattan, New York, killing eight people and and Arab nations that together comprise 50 countries, and injuring a dozen others. In April 2017, Uzbek national approximately 1.6 billion people. And while there are coun- Rakhmat Akilov drove a truck into pedestrians in Stockholm, tries that are neither Arab (The Philippines) nor Muslim Sweden, killing five people. Earlier in that same month, (Myanmar) where political or religious oppression exists, in Akbarzhon Jalilov, a Russian citizen, who was born in all Arab and Muslim majority countries there exists political Kyrgyzstan but of Uzbek heritage, blew himself up on a and/or religious oppression or both to varying degrees (Kis- train in St. Petersburg, Russia, killing 15 people along with Benedek, 2016). himself. In the early hours of New Year’s Day of 2017, Vaisman-Tzachor 5 another Uzbek national, Abdulkadir Masharipov, attacked a authorities in determination of inadmissibility cases against party at a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 39 revelers claims of hardship to qualifying relatives (Aranda, 2016; (Ott, 2017). No terrorist attacks were recorded in Uzbekistan Vaisman-Tzachor, 2003, 2012). Ordinarily, undocumented for many years. aliens who are deemed inadmissible for immigration pur- Uzbek nationals and Uzbeks constituted the largest single poses claim on behalf of their relatives (usually U.S.-born group of Central Asia jihadists to join ISIS in Syria in 2014, citizen children, but not exclusively) hardship if the aliens and in 2015, their numbers were estimated between 500 and are to be removed from the country. Often in such cases, a 2,500. While the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) psychological evaluation is used to assess the strength and formed in 1998 with the objective of creating an Islamic state dependability of the relationships between aliens and quali- in Uzbekistan, it pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015 and fying relatives, and to determine the potential hardship to changed its stated goals to a global caliphate instead. Most befall qualifying relatives if the aliens are to be removed experts believe that local security services have been able to (Cervantes, Mejia, & Mena, 2010). It is hereby recom- maintain the peace within the country by controlling and dis- mended that all cases adjudicated for undocumented aliens mantling underground politicized religious groups. Thus, to be routinely subjected to psychological evaluations to but- political and religious oppression from within effectively tress vetting and terrorism prevention efforts within this pushed all would-be jihadists out of the country. Hence, the group. peace gained by the politically and religiously oppressive The third category involves refugees and asylum seekers regime in Uzbekistan at home came at the expense of Western where psychological evaluations are often conducted, but nations who received many of these would-be terrorists into usually for applicants who are already on U.S. soil and are their folds under the guise of political asylum seekers seeking asylum from persecution in their country of origin. (Laruelle, 2017). While it is unclear to what extent this Such psychological evaluations ordinarily are offered in lieu exportation of terrorism is intended by the Uzbek govern- of other evidence about the alleged persecution the appli- ment, there are other countries known to actively purvey ter- cants have suffered, or are expected to suffer if returned, rorism (most notably, Iran), possibly as a pressure release when other evidence is typically missing. As can be expected, valve of internal oppression tensions. the majority of refugees and asylum applicants leave their countries of origin in a haste under threats to their lives. Therefore, they often lack basic evidentiary materials that Types of Psychological Evaluations for could corroborate their claims of persecution in their country Immigration Courts of origin. Consequently, the only evidence for what had been There are numerous and diverse circumstances that bring perpetrated or could have been perpetrated upon them is people to immigrate to the United States, and consequently commonly found in their psychological makeup and emo- similar number of potential legal considerations for their tional reactions, ordinarily in the form of posttrauma syn- adjudication which could be assisted by psychological evalu- dromes (Aranda, 2016; Frumkin & Friedland, 1995; ations. Despite their diversity, the cases processed by immi- Vaisman-Tzachor, 2014). gration authorities can be generally subsumed under three distinct categories: (a) legal immigrants, (b) undocumented The Process and Structure of immigrants, and (c) asylum seekers. Psychological Evaluations for The first category of legal immigrants is ordinarily pro- Immigration Courts cessed through the embassies, consulates, and other state department entities in the United States and abroad accord- Psychological evaluations for immigration purposes are cur- ing to customary protocols set forth by immigration law. In rently usually initiated by either applicants, or their legal rep- some of these instances (usually marriage to a U.S. citizen resentatives, concurrently, or immediately following the or other family unification processes), there is also reli- filing of immigration applications with U.S. authorities. ance on psychological evaluations to provide evidentiary Ordinarily, the persons applying would meet over the course support to immigration applications (Vaisman-Tzachor, of a few sessions for several hours with a psychology expert 2003, 2012). This article proposes that with a few excep- who would interview applicants, observe, and record interac- tions for persons who because of some obvious limitations tions with applicants, and administer a variety of psychologi- (e.g., serious disability, advanced age, etc.) do not repre- cal tests. At the conclusion of the evaluation process, the sent a risk of terrorism, most immigration applications in psychology expert produces a written report, which is then this category should be also subject to routine psychologi- submitted to immigration authorities and becomes eviden- cal evaluations as a vetting device to enhance terrorism tiary material for consideration in the ultimate ruling. prevention. Occasionally, psychology experts are also called upon to tes- The second category of undocumented immigrants is tify in legal proceedings about their evaluations and their where more commonly psychological evaluations are being findings, to assist immigration courts in rendering decisions used. Those are typically designed to assist immigration (Aranda, 2016; Vaisman-Tzachor, 2012, 2014). 6 SAGE Open In the course of interviews and observations with the psy- presented into evidence is based on scientific principles and chology expert, the applicants produce a historical account discoveries that are well recognized and widely accepted in of their lives and current circumstances, which are then com- the respective scientific community (Frye), and that evi- pared with results of other objective tests used in the process. dence offered to the court is reached with better than chance The applicants are given a series of objective psychological (which would be above 50%) or reasonable degree of psy- tests that are designed to generate a valid psychological rep- chological certainty (Daubert). resentation of the persons taking the tests. Obviously, the Stemming from FRE are specific demands for a particular greater the congruence between the accounts of the appli- approach from the forensic psychology expert that are also cants and their psychological makeup emerging out of their consistent with prevailing professional standard of care. That assessment results, the greater the reliability of their histori- means that selection of instruments and procedures for the cal accounts, which is relevant for terrorism prevention as evaluation would be those which would extract clinically rel- well. In addition, the psychological evaluations typically evant information, that the psychological tests used are com- also seek to map the constellation of interpersonal relations mercially available, that the tests’ reliability must be the persons applying for immigration are embedded in, the considered, that the tests are relevant to the legal issues, that qualities of those relations, and their importance to the appli- assessment administration is done in a standard fashion, that cants and to their relatives (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2012). This tests selected are applicable to the population studied (by dimension is also crucial in assisting immigration authorities norms) and for the purpose used, that preference is given to about the fate of the applicants and is also directly relevant objective tests, and to those which incorporate response style for terrorism prevention. (also known as validity scales) into their scoring and inter- The outcome of the psychological assessment process is pretation scheme (American Psychological Association then recorded in a written report by the psychology expert, [APA], 1985, 1991; Babitsky, Mangraviti, & Babitsky, which is then submitted to immigration authorities for their 2006). consideration. This final step not only allows (as it now does) for immigration authorities to utilize the psychological The Utility of Psychological Material to assessment results in rendering their judgments, but could Terrorism Prevention Efforts also allow, if implemented, yet another type of review by homeland security personnel about the relative risk the In a federally funded research project conducted by the immigration applicants evaluated pose for terrorism threats. author at the behest of President George W. Bush administra- tion at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, between 2002 and 2004, and subsequent publica- Information Gleaned in Psychological tions (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, 2012), the case for use Evaluations for Immigration of psychological information in terrorism prevention was The information gathered about immigration applicants made. At the core of the argument is that the motivation for when undergoing a psychological evaluation amounts to individuals to become terrorists is largely psychological, and fairly accurate and complete psychological representations that particular psychological makeups and circumstances of the persons involved. That means that the immigration could help predict who is more likely to be a terrorist. Also, applicants’ character structures, their developmental tracks, the vulnerability to be effectively recruited to terrorist activ- their emotional dilemmas, their personality strengths, and ity is also largely psychologically predicated based on char- their typical behavioral tendencies are all flushed out. In acter makeup. Consequently, those persons who are found to addition, major webs of applicants’ interpersonal connec- fit better the psychological profile of would-be terrorists tions, be it familial or social, are also gathered. Including in should receive greater scrutiny, and more thorough assess- this interpersonal map of personal connections are persons ment by immigration and law enforcement authorities. who had particular influence upon the applicants, which is While the psychological profile of terrorists is not consid- also especially relevant to terrorism prevention. This is ered a fixed “structure” or a simply identifiable set of static because many of the individuals who launched terrorist mental characteristics, the research on this topic identified attacks are known to have been inspired or radicalized by particular personality tendencies and combinations of cir- terrorism recruiters in their respective communities cumstances, which could lead to higher likelihood of a person (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2012). either being susceptible to recruitment or actually becoming a Because psychological evaluations for immigration courts terrorist. As such, certain psychological aspects were isolated are governed by Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE), they are as “markers” or factors, which when existing in combination responsive to the demands set forth by the 1923 Frye Test of with other factors and identified in a person could direct Evidence, and by the 1993 Daubert Standard (American Bar authorities to increase scrutiny of that individual. Association, 2010; Otto & Heilburn, 2002; Weiner & Hess, Among the most notable factors emerging out of this 2006). These demands require that information obtained and research are the identifiable narcissistic character Vaisman-Tzachor 7 organization, coupled with particular insults to the person’s Ordinarily, the assessment of suicide risk measures a vari- grandiose sense of self (also known as ego-injuries) in their ety of factors that had been found by research to possess a personal history, and combined with a palpable desire for certain degree of statistically reliable predictive value for notoriety. In the insults to the person’s sense of self-worth are ultimate suicide behavior (Franklin et al., 2017). Thus, the all the feelings of marginality and disaffection sometimes greater the number of factors and/or the greater the intensity found in members of migrant communities. For a complete of the suicide risk factors presented by the individual, the discussion of these and other isolated psychological factors, higher the level of risk for suicide assigned to the individual. which together form a dynamic psychological profile of Correspondingly, the greater the assessed risk of suicide, the likely terrorists, please see prior author publications more urgent and intrusive the preventive efforts are required (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, 2012). to thwart the danger (including arrest and involuntary hospi- In similar vein, but in the opposite direction, there are psy- talization). In any event, the ethical guidelines and standard chological factors that had been commonly identified in of care does not call for clinicians to accurately predict future immigrants (particularly undocumented and asylum seekers), behaviors of individuals—only to adequately assess the risk but which are not typical motivating factors for persons join- of suicide and intervene accordingly (APA, 2016; Franklin ing terrorist organizations. Because of the horrific conditions et al., 2017). of abuse and destitution, many undocumented and asylum In similar fashion, the psychological evaluation of immi- seekers leave behind; the immensely perilous and often dev- gration applicants for terrorism prevention does not seek to astating experiences of migration en route to the United predict who will ultimately become a terrorist and who will States, coupled with many personal losses sustained and fears not, since this is not possible. It only seeks to assign a level of about survival, leave most with distinct psychological trauma risk of terrorism, which will direct authorities in further pre- (Aranda, 2016). Consequently, the common psychological ventive efforts commensurate with the assigned level of risk. profile of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers is a Similar to the study of suicide, terrorism has also been studied combination with varying degrees of posttraumatic stress dis- from a psychological perspective and several reliable predic- order, major depressive disorder, and anxiety disorders. tive factors have been identified over the years, which could As can be easily observed, the psychological profiles of become the foundation for assignment of terrorism level of undocumented and asylum seekers and the psychological risk (Post & Denny, 2002; Shermer, 2006; Silke, 2003; profiles of would-be terrorists are markedly different and Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, 2012; Zagorin & Duffy, 2005). distinct. While the first group of immigrants (undocumented, Along with some demographic characteristics (including eth- asylum) presents with largely trauma-related symptoms and nic membership, religious affiliation, age, gender, etc.) are a psychological image of victims of terrible circumstances, some psychological markers (mostly emanating from a narcis- the second group of (would-be terrorists) immigrants pres- sistic character organization), which are considered to have ents with narcissism, grandiosity, desire for notoriety, and higher predictive validity for ultimate terrorist behaviors. signs they sustained insults and blows to their sense of self- When such are identified, immigration authorities would worth (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, 2012). be alerted, and exercise their legal authority, including but not limited to placing a person on the Terrorism Watch-List, placing a person on a No-Flight List, increased surveillance Actuarial-Based Psychological of immigrants allowed into the country, and all the way to Evaluations denying entry visa into the United States, to name only some. In many ways, the psychological evaluation of immigrants Obviously, the level of terrorism risk would be compiled for terrorism prevention follows the same conceptual from the quantity and intensity of the predictive factors iden- framework of prevalent psychological evaluations for sui- tified in the psychological evaluation, similar to the suicide cide prevention. Current standard of care in psychological evaluation. Likewise, the prevention measures to be applied practice calls for all clinicians to assess and intervene in by authorities will be commensurate with the level of situations when patients are suicidal. While the American assessed risk, so that higher level of risk will beget stronger Psychological Association ethics code and most state laws intervention efforts, and lesser level of risk will receive lesser recognize the imperative to prevent death by suicide, they intervention efforts (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, 2012). also recognize that clinicians’ abilities to predict future behaviors of individuals is no better than chance (APA, Illustrative Examples 2016; Ribeiro, Bodell, Hames, Hagan, & Joiner, 2013). Therefore, current standards call for an assessment of sui- The Case of Omer Ali cide by all clinicians across the board, which will produce a measure of risk (e.g., none, slight, moderate, high, grave, Mr. Omer Mohammed Ali was a member of the Issaks tribe imminent, etc.), and a corresponding intervention plan and a native of Hargeisa, a town in the northern region of which is commensurate with the assessed level of risk Somalia, which by the mid 1980s became the center of ethnic (Ribeiro et al., 2013). dispute with the government of dictator Siad Barre (Ragavan, 8 SAGE Open 1999). Like many of his tribe’s youth, he was 15 years old norms and values than indication of his violent tendencies, when he was recruited to fight for the Somalia National and that Mr. Ali represented a very low risk to U.S. society Movement (SNM) against the Barre dictatorship. He received (Matter of Ali, 2005). paramilitary training, participated in some of the fighting, and later became an informant for SNM while his father was Analysis of the Case still a minister in the government of Siad Barre. With the intensification of the civil war, Ali’s family moved to the The attentive reader would have noted that in 1989, Mr. Ali capital, Mogadishu, where the fighting soon caught up with had no difficulty obtaining a student visa (I-20) to enter the them there as well. In 1989, attempting to escape the war, United States, from a country that was engulfed in a bloody Mr. Omer Ali obtained a student visa (I-20) and moved to civil war. As Ragavan (1999) contemporaneously noted, the Seattle, Washington, to live with tribe members and pursue United States had become in those years a haven for thou- undergraduate studies. Subsequently, some of his family sands of war criminals who tortured and killed millions of members managed to escape to Kenya and became refugees their people in Haiti, Somalia, Cambodia, El Salvador, there, whereas others less fortunate were either tortured and Guatemala, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia, to name slaughtered (the men), or tortured and raped (the women). only some. Immigration authorities in his case had conducted In 1990, Mr. Omer Ali applied for political asylum, which absolutely no assessment of this person nor could they have gave him a U.S. work permit that was then periodically done so when the government institutions in Somalia had all renewed until it was finally denied in the late 1990s. He later but collapsed. What could have been done at that time was a moved to Southern California, met and married his wife psychological evaluation to identify potential risk factors for (who was also a member of the Issaks tribe) in 1997, and terrorism affiliation or motives. sired three children with her. She was a naturalized U.S. citi- It is important to realize that Mr. Omer Ali’s entry into the zen who escaped the same town a few years after he did, and United States with a student visa subsequently also allowed for the same exact circumstances. He continued his educa- him to change his status to asylum applicant, and to remain in tion and managed to obtain certifications to work as an assis- the country for an extended period of years. His affiliations tant chiropractor and assistant physical therapist and and loyalties notwithstanding, the first time he came to the managed to obtain employment in a large medical facility. attention of immigration authorities for special consideration During the late 1990s, Mr. Ali was involved in a physical and vetting as a potential risk to U.S. society was 5 years after altercation during a party at his home, which was reported to he first entered the United States (!). During this time, Mr. Ali police because both he and his counterpart were taken to could have wrecked havoc and destruction in the United States emergency room for treatment of minor wounds. His politi- in many unimaginable ways, if he was so inclined. cal asylum applications were subsequently repeatedly Only when Judge Latimore decided she could not allow a denied, and he was eventually ordered to appear before Judge violent man permanent resident status without further inves- Latimore of Los Angeles Federal Immigration Court in early tigation did he receive the kind of attention he should have 2000s for a deportation hearing. received in the first place. Note also that by the time he came Alarmed by the police report of interpersonal violence, to be considered for immigrant status, Mr. Ali had formed Judge Latimore in 2003 justly raised the concern that Mr. Ali other familial ties (marriage to a naturalized U.S. citizen and may represent a danger to U.S. society and moved to deport having three U.S.-born American citizen children) that would him back to Somalia. Mr. Omer Ali’s attorney prevailed upon have made his deportation that much more difficult to obtain, the judge and hired the author to conduct a psychological if such was sought (Matter of Ali, 2005). evaluation of Mr. Ali and his family and to offer observations Equally important and totally missed by immigration and recommendations to the court for consideration. The authorities at the time, and allowing his free passage as a psychological evaluation revealed that Mr. Omer Ali was student in to the United States, was Mr. Ali’s affiliation to a traumatized by the civil war in Somalia and the many per- paramilitary organization (SNM), and his father’s affiliation sonal losses he experienced. He tested as a person who to the dictatorship as a minister in Siad Barre’s government. avoids conflict and shies from violence, which made him in Either loyalties of Mr. Ali, to his father and Barre’s govern- the past a poor active participant in the SNM military cam- ment, or to membership in SNM should have ordinarily paign in Somalia. The psychological study also discovered caused his student visa application to be denied. At the very that he scuffled with his friend over an insult that required least, his connections should have raised serious concerns, him to respond with some degree of measured violence to where a more thorough evaluation should have been con- uphold his family honor, as is customary in the Issaks tribe, ducted to reveal his motives in coming to the United States, but not because he wanted to. The evidence suggested that but neither raised a red flag. neither participant in the brawl filed an official complaint In retrospect, it was discovered through psychological against the other, and that in fact, they remained friends analysis that Mr. Omer Ali was indeed a true refugee escap- thereafter. This, the evaluator argued, was more likely a rep- ing the civil war in Somalia, and not a would-be terrorist on resentation of the poor socialization of Mr. Ali to American U.S. soil. His psychological profile and emotional Vaisman-Tzachor 9 presentation was of a person who was traumatized by the war Farook’s office holiday party in San Bernardino killing 14 that ravaged his country, and someone who is desperately and wounding 22 before they were also killed in a police trying to escape the violence. He exhibited no particular shootout later that afternoon. strong affiliation loyalties to either party in the conflict, and exhibited none of the characteristic psychological markers Analysis of the Case found in most terrorists (namely, narcissistic character traits) (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, 2012). For a more thorough There appear to have been a few opportunities for authorities discussion of the psychological evaluation for asylum appli- to be alerted to the potential risk that Mr. Syed Farook, his cations and its products, see author’s 2014 article. friend Enrique Marquez Jr., and Farook’s wife, Ms. Tashfeen Malik represented. First, the marriage of Marquez to Mariya Chernikh and her sister’s marriage to Farook’s older brother The Case of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen could have alerted immigration authorities to the fraudulent Malik nature of the relationships. While in and of themselves not terrorism-related offenses, they could have trained a spot- Syed Farook became friends with the coconspirator and col- light on these individuals and their other, more nefarious laborator of the San Bernardino terror attack Enrique activities, and possibly deter them from executing their plot. Marquez Jr. as a teenager. They were neighbors in a suburb A routine psychological evaluation for immigration of the of Riverside, California, where they also attended a local two married couples (Farook and Chernikh and Marquez and mosque together. Over time, they apparently became radical- Chernykh) would have revealed fairly quickly that the cou- ized and began to plot terrorist attacks involving launching ples were not romantically involved and fraudulently con- pipe bombs into the cafeteria of Riverside City College, ceived. If nothing else, it would have put Mr. Farook’s older shooting people as they fled, and opening fire on drivers on brother and Mr. Marquez Jr. out of the picture with sentences the 91 Freeway during rush hour. To bring their terrifying of 10 to 15 years in federal prison each, unable to assist in plans to fruition, they began to amass weapons and explo- any future terrorism attacks. Although not entirely stopping sives 4 years before the San Bernardino massacre. Their plot, Mr. Syed Farook from pursuing his Jihad, it could have pos- however, never came to fruition as in 2012, three other con- sibly deterred him from continuing to plot in the absence of spirators were arrested in the same region (Inland Empire, his friend and brother, and with greater authority scrutiny California) on suspicion of plotting to kill Americans upon him. (Serrano, Esquivel, & Knoll, 2015). The other point in time when immigration authorities Seeking less illustrious venues thereafter, Marquez mar- failed to detect and could have detected a would-be terrorist ried for money Mariya Chernykh so she can obtain legal sta- was in the processing of the K-1 “fiancee” visa for Ms. tus in the United States, as did Farook’s older brother who Tashfeen Malik. First, it goes without saying that asking a married Mariya’s sister under similar pretenses. The person about their “intentions to engage in terrorist activi- Chernykh sisters came from Russia on J-1 visas—commonly ties while in the U.S.” is a naive and ridiculous procedure used for educational and cultural programs, and overstayed to vet a person. It is only slightly ahead of an almost equally their visas. The fake marriage is in an of itself, a Federal pathetic and absurd second check of fingerprints and facial offense carrying 10 to 15 years in prison. Before the attack in recognition software. None of those could nor did identify San Bernardino in December 2015, however, Enrique what was in this woman’s mind and heart—namely, that she Marquez also purchased for Farook and his wife Malik two was going to massacre as many Americans as she could, assault rifles that were subsequently used in the massacre. and that she was going to lie about it all the way to the Sometime in 2012, Mr. Syed Farook met Tashfeen bloody end. A psychological evaluation of this woman and Malik, a Pakistani woman who was raised in Saudi Arabia, a psychological evaluation of this matrimony would have and who hailed from a family with reputed ties to Islamic revealed essential clues about the personality elements that militants in Punjab. The couple met first online through an could portend ultimate terrorist behavior. A thorough Islamic matrimonial website, and he subsequently traveled review of her developmental history and psychological to Saudi Arabia in 2013 to meet her in person. They then testing of her character alone would have revealed her nar- obtained a K-1 “fiancee” visa for Malik to enter the coun- cissistic tendencies and her vulnerability to terrorism try with Farook. In the process, she underwent “extensive recruitment (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2012). Likewise, a closer counter-terrorism screening” by U.S. immigration authori- examination of the motives of the Farook–Malik matrimo- ties that included checks of fingerprints and facial recogni- nial union could have pointed to obvious commonalities in tion software, and questioned about her intentions to their radical Islamic views and lifestyle. Although the psy- “engage in terrorist activities while in the U.S.” (Serrano chological evaluations for immigration could not necessar- et al., 2015). The two married in 2014 in Islam’s holy city ily predict the gruesome crimes this couple subsequently of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, and returned to the United States committed, it could have revealed warning signs for author- where they resumed their preparations for the attack. They ities to follow with greater rigor. ultimately launched their terrorist act in December 2015 in 10 SAGE Open assessments for immigration have been an invaluable tool Ethical and Validity Considerations in the aid of immigration authorities in the past two decades In the case of the proposed psychological evaluations to all to assist in decision making regarding a variety of immi- immigrant types across the board, several ethical issues gration applicants. The same psychological evaluations for should be considered. The first concern involves the consent immigration, if applied systematically across the board to for a psychological evaluation which is ethically required all categories of immigration applicants, can also generate (APA, 1991, 2016) of all subjects in a forensic psychology a terrorism risk assessment for each individual. study. Ordinarily, consent should be obtained from all partici- Subsequently, immigration and homeland security authori- pants at the outset of an evaluation, without undue pressure ties can then deploy appropriate terrorism preventive mea- on subjects to provide it (which may not necessarily conform sures that are coherent and commensurate with the level of to the situation of an immigration application). When undue risk each immigrant more likely poses. pressure on subjects is present, the results of the evaluation could be skewed in the direction of defensive response pat- Declaration of Conflicting Interests terns, which may not accurately reflect upon the true motives The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect of the individuals studied. While this could potentially pres- to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. ent a threat to the validity of the findings because of defen- siveness, and could potentially hamper terrorism preventive Funding efforts, the requirement to participate in a psychological eval- uation is likely to be perceived by most as no more than The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author- ship, and/or publication of this article. another tier in the already cumbersome immigration process. As it were, most immigration applicants are required to pro- duce a variety of personally revealing documents and other References personal details about themselves (e.g., financial, medical, American Bar Association. (2010). The 2010 federal rules book. etc.) and about their circumstances (e.g., birth certificates, Chicago, IL: Author. school diplomas, employment pay stubs, etc.) anyhow. Thus, American Psychological Association. (1985). Standards for edu- adding a psychological evaluation to the already long list of cational and psychological testing. Washington DC: Author. American Psychological Association. (1991). Specialty guidelines for intrusive procedures that immigrants are required to undergo forensic psychologists. Law and Human Behavior, 15, 655-665. will not be perceived as undue pressure, and therefore, would American Psychological Association. (2016). Ethical principles of not violate basic rights for provision of a consent to be evalu- psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved from http://www. ated as they tacitly agreed to be evaluated. apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx The other ethical concern (and therefore also a potential Aranda, R. (2016). Living in the shadows: Plight of the undocu- threat to the validity of the evaluation results) is the concern mented. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 72, 795-806. that the evaluator is appointed by a federal agency, which Babitsky, S., Mangraviti, J. J., & Babitsky, A. (2006). The A-Z could confer upon the examiner an inherent bias against the guide to expert witnessing. Falmouth, MA: Seak Inc. immigrant, as is the typical stance of federal authorities Bove, V., & Bohmelt, T. (2016). Does immigration induce terror- (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2012, 2014). It is therefore easy to under- ism? The Journal of Politics, 78, 572-588. stand how psychological evaluations to all immigration Cervantes, J. M., Mejia, O. L., & Mena, A. (2010). Serial migration and the assessment of extreme and unusual psychological hard- applicants initiated by immigration authorities could be seen ship with undocumented Latina/o families. Hispanic Journal of as inherently unethical, and the evaluator likened to a “hired- Behavioral Sciences, 32, 275-291. gun” on behalf of the government. While representing a chal- Comey, J. B. (2015, October). Worldwide threats and homeland lenge, this question also directs the forensic psychology security challenges. FBI News. Retrieved from https://www. expert’s approach to each case assessed. The task of the eval- fbi.gov/news/testimony/worldwide-threats-and-homeland- uator is to study the truth about the psychological dimensions security-challenges of each particular immigration case, regardless of the referral Conde, Y.M. (1999). Operation Pedro Pan: The untold exodus of source. Furthermore, it is never the role of the psychology 14,048 Cuban children. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. expert to offer opinions about any legal matters regarding the Franklin, J. C., Ribeiro, J. D., Fox, K. R., Bentley, K. H., Kleiman, case, which are within the absolute and only purview of legal E. M., Huang, X., . . . Nock, M. K. (2017). Risk factors for authorities (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2012, 2014). suicidal thoughts and behaviors: A meta-analysis of 50 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 143, 187-232. Frumkin, I., & Friedland, J. (1995). Forensic evaluations in immi- gration cases: Evolving issues. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, Conclusion 13, 477-489. doi:10.1002/bsl.2370130404 The application of scientific methodology to the preven- Horton, H., Strange, H., Rothwell, J., & Yorke, H. (2017, August, tion of terrorism could enhance the safety of all Americans, 19). Barcelona attack: Police raid home of imam linked to cell while streamline existing preventive protocols, and behind twin terror attacks. The Telegraph. Available from improve the vetting process of immigrants. Psychological http://telegraph.co.uk/ Vaisman-Tzachor 11 Kean, T. H., Hamilton, L. H., Ben-Veniste, R., Kerrey, B., Fielding, police. The Telegraph. Available from http://www.telegraph. F. F., Lehman, J. F., . . . Thompson, J. R. (2004). The 9/11 com- co.uk/ mission report. New York, NY: W.W. Norton. Vaisman-Tzachor, R. (2003). Psychological assessment protocol in Kephart, J. (2005). Immigration and terrorism. Center for federal immigration courts. The Forensic Examiner, 12(3&4), Immigration Studies. Retrieved from http://cis.org/arti- 34-41. cles/2005/kephart.html Vaisman-Tzachor, R. (2006). Psychological profiles of terrorists. Kis-Benedek, J. (2016). Illegal immigration and terrorism. Journal The Forensic Examiner, 15(2), 6-17. of Security and Sustainability Issues, 5, 457-503. Vaisman-Tzachor, R. (2007). Profiling terrorists. Journal of Police Laruelle, M. (2017, November 1). 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Retrieved from fourth-terror-suspect-with-uzbekistan-links-in-2017/ http://www.annalsofpsychotherapy.com/articles/2014/PDF/ Otto, R. K., & Heilburn, K. (2002). The practice of forensic psy- Vaisman-Tzachor_Nov14.pdf chology: A look toward the future in light of the past. American Weiner, I. B., & Hess, A. K. (2006). The handbook of forensic psy- Psychologist, 57, 5-18. chology (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley. Pitti, J. A., Castaneda, A., & Cortes, C. (2004). Five views: An eth- Zagorin, A., & Duffy, M. (2005). Inside the interrogation of nic historic site survey for California: Mexican Americans in detainee 063. Time, 165(25), 26-33. California. Available from www.nps.org Zakem, V., Meszaros, C., Scism, D., & McGee, S. (2012). Post, J., & Denny, L. (2002, July 16-19). The terrorists in their own Implications of international events on homeland security: A words. Paper presented at the International Society of Political case study of the Arab spring. Homeland Security Studies and Psychology Conference, Berlin, Germany. Analysis Institute. Retrieved from http://www.anser.org/docs/ Ragavan, C. (1999, November 15). A safe haven, but for whom? reports/Implications_from_Arab_Spring_on_HS.pdf U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved from https://www.cja. org/downloads/Ali_USNews&World_11.15.99.pdf Author Biography Ribeiro, J. D., Bodell, L. P., Hames, J. L., Hagan, C. R., & Joiner, T. E. (2013). An empirically based approach to the assessment and Reuben Vaisman-Tzachor, PhD, FACFEI, DABPS, FAPA, management of suicidal behavior. Journal of Psychotherapy DABCHS. Obtained his doctorate in clinical psychology from the Integration, 23, 207-221. California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles in Rubin, A. J., Kingsley, P., & Karasz, P. (2017, August, 20). 1993. He is a fellow at the American College of Forensic Barcelona attack suspects had ties to imam linked to ISIS. The Examiners Institute in Clinical and Forensic Psychology, a diplo- New York Times. Retrieved from https://nyti.ms/2vQrDCX mate of the American Board of Psychology Specialties, a fellow at Searl, A. C., Schwartz, S. G., Beck, E., Diza, U., & Minich, J. the American Psychotherapy Association, and a diplomate of the M. (2017, April). Bridges and bandits on the road to New American Board of Certification in Homeland Security. He has Jerusalem: A study of the correlation between immigration been an adjunct professor of doctors of clinical and forensic psy- and terrorism (The Research and Scholarship Symposium). chology programs at Alliant International University, at National Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/research_ University, at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in scholarship_symposium/2017/podium_presentations/15 Los Angeles, California and an adjunct professor of clinical psy- Serrano, R. A., Esquivel, P., & Knoll, C. (2015, December 14). chology at Argosy University and Antioch University in Los Everything we know about the San Bernardino terror attack Angeles, California for 25 years. He has conducted research and investigation so far. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http:// published numerous articles starting in 1991 on various topics www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-san-bernardino- involving psychological aspects of terrorism prevention, psycho- shooting-terror-investigation-htmlstory.html logical profiles of terrorists, and profiling terrorists, as well as Shermer, M. (2006, January). Murdercide: Science unravels the various seminal articles on psychological evaluations for federal myth of suicide bombers. Scientific American, 294(1), 34. immigration courts in cases of asylum and inadmissibility. He is Silke, A. (2003). Terrorists, victims and society: Psychological licensed psychologist in California, he is the director and owner of perspectives on terrorism and its consequences. Hoboken, NJ: the Counseling Center of Santa Monica – A Psychological John Wiley. Corporation, a private practice in Los Angeles, California and he Strange, H., Badcock, J., & Evans, M. (2017, August 21). is formerly an attending psychologist at Cedars Sinai Medical Barcelona attack suspect Younes Abouyaaqoub shot by Center in Los Angeles for 16 years. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png SAGE Open SAGE

A Terrorism Prevention Imperative: Psychological Evaluations for All Immigrants:

SAGE Open , Volume 8 (2): 1 – Jul 2, 2018

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Abstract

Psychological evaluations of immigration applicants have been widely used for over two decades in the U.S. Federal legal system. The principal purpose of these assessments was and remains to assist immigration authorities in making determinations regarding the status of applicants of various categories. This article proposes that the same evaluations conducted to help adjudicate asylum petitions, removal proceedings, and inadmissibility hearings are also essential vetting devices for terrorism prevention. The systematic application of the now elective psychological evaluations for immigration courts to all immigrants could help identify would-be terrorists and help law enforcement prevent future attacks on the United States. Keywords psychological evaluations, immigration, terrorism prevention worldwide have all but secured for terrorist organizations fer- Introduction tile grounds for recruitment of would-be terrorists among the Immigration and terrorism had risen to public attention in many disaffected and disenfranchised members of oppressed recent times and frequently become central topics in political societies and countries (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2007, 2014). discourse of both domestic and international policy. While On the contrary, the United States and its major geopo- largely distinct and different geopolitical processes, one litical allies in the western world have been engaged in an involving the movement of people mostly into the United ongoing war against terrorism since after September 11, States and the other involving guerilla-type warfare waged 2001. And although the names of the terrorist organiza- against the United States among others, often they come to tions, from Al-Qaeda to ISIS, have changed over time, as be considered in conjunction with one another. And not with- have the stated goals and origins for the armed conflict out reason. Both immigration and terrorism have become in with the United States and its Western allies, the presence recent years formidable challenges for law enforcement and of terrorist threats has not waned in the least. In fact, the for policy makers alike (Searl, Schwartz, Beck, Diza, & danger of terrorist attacks upon the United States in the Minich, 2017). homeland have all but increased, with the advent of online Immigration of large numbers of undocumented persons recruitment of what have come to be dubbed “home- and asylum seekers has commanded increasing attention with grown-terrorists” (Searl et al., 2017). This threat has been the most notably ongoing war in Syria and the ongoing drug only magnified with infiltration of would-be terrorists into war in countries south of the U.S. border. But not exclusively. the United States, often disguised as refugees and innocent The considerable number of humans around the globe living immigrants. The challenge for immigration authorities and under oppressive political regimes, with virtually no protec- for law enforcement agencies then is to strike a delicate tion to members of minority groups of all kinds, combined balance between allowing the flow of humans in and out of with even larger numbers of humans living in poverty and the country and preventing terrorists from establishing hopelessness, have all added to the magnitude of the migra- tion problem. The pressures upon local populations produced by these conflicts and conditions, with the devastation that Counseling Center of Santa Monica – A Psychological Corporation, CA, USA they wreak upon the personal lives, safety, economy, and civil Corresponding Author: life of citizens of many nations, intensified the desire to Reuben Vaisman-Tzachor, 1731 Barry Avenue, #112, Los Angeles, CA escape and find safe havens in the United States and else- 90025, USA. where (Arandra, 2016). These same deplorable conditions Email: vavnik@hotmail.com Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 SAGE Open bases of operation within the United States. This challenge the United States illegally prior to or in conjunction with tak- so far has been daunting, to say the least. ing part in terrorist activity. Of the 59 terrorists who violated immigration law, most (84%) committed multiple immigra- tion violations. Noteworthy is that even after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, and subsequent tightening of scrutiny of The Modern Nexus of Immigration and immigrants, 50% of terrorists who entered the United States Terrorism before the attacks were able to stay, and continue their activi- The flow of refugees from war-torn countries into the United ties thereafter unabated. Finally, there were more terrorists States is not a new historical phenomena. In fact, thousands who were able to acquire immigration status even after 9/11, of immigrants from all continents flowed during the last hun- and to enter the United States with nary a question. dred years to America from regions afflicted by civil wars The most common entry process for the terrorists counted and from nations engulfed in armed conflicts. Ordinarily, the by Kephart (2005) involved abuse of temporary visas: 18 ter- majority of these people were accepted into the fold of rorists entered with student visas, four terrorists received American society and processed through immigration acts approval to study in the United States, and 17 terrorists adopted for their purpose, allowing subsequent naturaliza- obtained a visitor visa—either tourist (B2) or business (B1). tion (Conde, 1999; Pitti, Castaneda, & Cortes, 2004). Of those who entered with temporary visas, at least 13 terror- Increasingly since the 1990s, however, the potential for hun- ists abused them by overstaying beyond their time limit. In dreds and perhaps thousands of terrorists flowing into the addition, 34 would-be terrorists captured during the time United States under the guise of either asylum seekers or per- studied were charged with making false statements to an sons seeking to reunite with their families already in the immigration official. Of those, there were 11 instances of United States has become an ominous reality. passport fraud and 10 instances of visa fraud. In 17 other The national commission on the 9/11 terrorist attacks cases, terrorists disguised as asylum seekers by claiming to upon the United States, for example (Kean et al., 2004), lack proper travel documents at their port of entry. identified the infiltration of Nawaf al Hazmi, Khalid al Once in the United States, terrorists continued to use Mihdhar, and other Al-Qaeda operatives in 2000 to California fraud as means to facilitate their stay, or to “embed,” in the as a prelude to the infamous September 11, 2001, attacks on country. Seven terrorists were indicted for acquiring or using the United States. It noted that while Hazmi and Mihdhar various forms of fake identification, including driver’s were ill-prepared for a mission in the United States (neither licenses, birth certificates, social security cards, and false had spent any time in the West and neither spoke much, if immigration arrival records. Most notably, 23 terrorists any English), their devotion to Al-Qaeda and their ability to sought to legally naturalize despite fraudulent entries, and of obtain valid U.S. visas were crucial qualifications to carry those 20 foreign terrorists became naturalized U.S. citizens. out their ultimate plot (2004). Noteworthy here is the lack of Out of additional 23 terrorists, 16 became legal permanent meaningful vetting conducted upon visa applicants before residents, often by marrying an American. There were at the 2001 attacks; a practice that has not substantially changed least nine recorded sham marriages during that time period thereafter, despite authorities claims to the contrary. (Kephart, 2005). And while the number of terrorists among In similar fashion, the piloting of the commercial air- the millions of other undocumented and documented immi- planes that would ultimately crash into the New York twin grants is minuscule, their negative effects upon the security towers was heralded by the entry in the Summer of 2000 of our nation cannot be overstated. through the Newark, New Jersey, international airport (with After the December 2010 “Arab Spring” and concurrent valid U.S. visas, of course) of Marwan al Shehhi and emergence of the Islamic State as a player in the Middle East, Mohamed Atta (also known as the “Hamburg Cell,” after however, the flow of immigrants into the United States their indoctrination origins). They soon joined other became an even greater source of alarm for immigration and Al-Qaeda counterparts Ziad Jarrah in a flight school in Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials alike. The Venice, Florida, and later with Zacarias Moussaoui and Ihab collapse of many Middle East countries’ centralized govern- Ali in another flight school in Norman, Oklahoma (Kean ment (e.g., Lybia, Syria, Yemen) created an even more com- et al., 2004). The fact that both Atta and al Shehhi were plex and challenging environment within which immigration German residents was all that was needed to secure a student authorities, U.S. consulates, and U.S. embassies operate. The visa for entry into the United States, no questions asked. But, task of U.S. officials to validate documents of would-be refu- what if their application process also required a psychologi- gees and ascertain the testimonies given by immigrants cal evaluation? What could have been learned about them applying for visas from such countries became virtually that could have prevented the attacks? impossible. It also meant that the flow of new immigrants In one study, Kephart (2005) counted 94 terrorists who almost certainly included many evildoers who slipped came into the United States as immigrants between 1990 and through the broken system of checks and balances ordinarily 2004, and who eventually conducted terrorist attacks in the not designed to catch such persons (Zakem, Meszaros, homeland. Her study found that 63% of those terrorists entered Scism, & McGee, 2012). Vaisman-Tzachor 3 In a 2016 report published by staffers of Senators Jeff recruiters disguised as clergy or refugees (Kis-Benedek, Sessions (R-Ala.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), they counted 580 2016). convictions of terrorists who acted within the United States When movement of persons from terrorist-prone nations in recent years. Of those convicted of terrorist acts, at least to previously unaffected countries becomes sizable, it can 380 or over 65% of these were foreign-born. Further illus- more readily spread terrorism regardless of the motives of trating the growing demand to address the nexus of immigra- the people migrating. This is largely because typical charac- tion and terrorism comes a statement of former FBI director teristics of persons from current terror-prone communities Comey (2015). In a statement before the House Committee and nations make them ideal vehicles for the spread of this on Homeland Security in Washington, D.C., on October 21, scourge. Migrants from terror-prone nations carry on across 2015, then FBI director James B. Comey estimated that at international borders with them ideological, cultural, and least 250 Americans traveled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIL ethnic heritage of their native countries onto their host (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) or ISIS (Islamic State nations. And although most migrants’ basic cultural, reli- of Iraq and Syria). By his estimates, at least half of them have gious, and ethnic heritage is not particularly radical nor vio- since returned from the fight and are back in the homeland, lent, it still forms the foundation upon which radical terrorism preparing to strike (Comey, 2015). It is therefore reasonable is based (Nicholson, 2010). to suggest, that the process by which persons traveling into Research shows that migrants from terrorist-prone nations the United States does not adequately screen for the potential inevitably transplant intellectual networks and cultural com- risk of terrorism, as so many have managed to enter unabated. munities that more readily accommodated the existence of More recently, research focused on the empirical connec- terrorism in their native countries, to their host nations. The tion between immigration and terrorism has yielded some formation of close and interrelated expatriate communities in interesting, albeit alarming results. A 2016 study by Bove the host nations which resemble in essence their country of and Bohmelt correlated terrorist activity in 175 countries origin are then easily exploited for radicalization and recruit- receiving immigration with the numbers of immigrants from ment by terrorists from similar backgrounds. Indeed, terror- areas with high levels of terrorist activity and recruitment ist have long-used communities of first- and second-generation exists, over a 30-year period. They found a positive and sta- migrants in host nations as places to hide their presence and tistically significant correlation between the rise of terrorism blend in, as operational bases to originate terrorist attacks, as in those 175 countries receiving immigrants from areas with recruitment centers, and as hubs for their radicalization high levels of terrorist activity and recruitment, and the rise efforts. In so doing, terrorists have managed to expand their in numbers of immigrants from such areas. Searl et al. (2017) reach into other nations and regions and to recruit new found similar empirical data that unequivocally support the migrants, in places they had no hold in before. They do so by notion that increased terrorism in host countries corresponds exploiting the social capital created in the migrant communi- with increased migration from terror-prone nations and ties to make ideological inroads into the native population regions where terrorist organizations recruit new members. (Kis-Benedek, 2016). There are other ways in which terrorist organizations, most of whom emanate from Muslim and Arab countries, exploit migrant communities to infiltrate into mostly Western The Mechanisms by Which host nations. Generally, the Muslim and Arab diaspora are Immigration Allows Terrorism seen by members of Western host nations as different and Penetration distinct from their own populace. Therefore, Muslim and It is important to recognize that by and large, immigrants do Arab migrants often feel ostracized from or perceive them- not move to other countries to bring terrorism, especially if selves substantially alienated from mainstream Western host escaping it in their countries of origin. It is also equally societies, and have diminished opportunities for assimila- important to understand that some immigrants intend to do tion. Consequently, they are more vulnerable to recruitment exactly that, namely bring terror with them. Considering the and radicalization efforts by terrorist organizations bent on carnage of thousands of victims on 9/11 by a relatively small exploiting socially marginal individuals and groups. group of immigrants, and the many additional successful Additional empirical research indicates that where sig- attacks by individual terrorists over the years since, the con- nificant number of migrants have largely failed to assimilate cern for terrorism penetration is substantial. Likewise, even into mainstream Western societies, they remain vulnerable to though majority of migrants are only looking for a better life recruitment and radicalization efforts by terrorist networks. in a new country, their movement facilitates the spread of This, because unassimilated persons in Western societies are terrorism by establishing a physical link between the terror- more prone to feelings of deprivation and discontent fostered prone source and the receiving nations (Bove & Bohmelt, by their marginal circumstances (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2007). 2016). These physical links are exploited not only by well- Hence, despite the good intentions of the majority of migrants known terrorists, as their cross-nation movement is more and nations that host them, terrorist organizations take full likely to be detected, but also by less known terrorism advantage of the communities that migrants create to 4 SAGE Open promote their radical agendas vis-a-vis disaffected individu- Consequently, these countries “export” through migration als (Searl et al., 2017). an inordinate amount of both freedom seekers as well as dis- A perfect example of these effects is represented in the proportionate number of terrorists to the Western world com- recruitment of a dozen terrorists that carried out the Barcelona pared with other nations. Often times those two categories, and Cambrils, Spain, attacks in August, 2017. Together they freedom seekers and would-be terrorists, cannot be effec- killed 14 and wounded over 80 others. Most of the victims tively distinguished during the immigration process. This is died or were injured after being run over by a van while true, because some of the previously freedom seekers ema- strolling on Las Ramblas, the main pedestrian boulevard in nating from Muslim and/or Arab countries end up becoming Barcelona. By all accounts, members of the cell were all recruited and/or radicalized only after migrating and reach- migrants of Morocco nationality who grew up together in the ing their Western country destination (Searl et al., 2017). town of Ripoll, in Catalonia. The terrorist cell comprised Typically, the radicalization of formerly freedom seekers to four groups of siblings and a few others who all knew each would-be “home-grown” or “lone-wolf” attackers occurs in other to some degree; most attended the same local high the Western countries only some years after migration and school before they were recruited, and most were employed not immediately upon arrival. locally. The young men, most of them were not even 25 years This fact suggests a mediating factor or factors that play old, were not particularly religious, and none of them lived in an important role in the process of radicalization to would-be poverty, or had a significant criminal record before recruit- terrorists. Research conducted by the author for the U.S. ment to become terrorists. An exception was the ring leader government between 2002 and 2004 and subsequent declas- and mastermind of the cell, Mr. Abdelbaki Essati (Strange, sified portions published (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, Babcock, & Evans, 2017). 2012a) reveals particular psychological factors that facilitate Mr. Essati, who at the time of his death in the explosion of the recruitment and radicalization process. The most promis- the makeshift bomb-making facility in a vacant house in the ing and useful aspect of the terrorist psychological profile Catalan town of Alcanar, was 45 years old, had a criminal developed is a characteristic narcissistic character. It seems record. In 2010, Mr. Essati was jailed for 4 years for smug- to interact fairly well for disaffected and marginal migrants gling Hashish between Morocco and Spain and while in from Arab and Muslim majority nations recruitment to ter- prison became close to one of the ringleaders behind the rorism. The individual’s internal rationale, colored by their Madrid bombings (Horton, Strange, Rothwell, & Yorke, particular personality traits, can be subsumed under the fol- 2017). Upon the end of his term in prison, Mr. Essati was set lowing hypothetical example: to be deported to Morocco as is customary law in Spain for Before migrating: foreign nationals who were convicted of serious crimes for “I cannot give expression to my uniqueness under the oppressive which prison sentences were longer than 1 year. In 2014, regime of the country of origin. I therefore have to migrate to a however, Mr. Essati appealed his expulsion and managed to liberal place where I can give full expression to my specialness.” overturn the Spanish court ruling by arguing it would breach his human rights. He subsequently sought a job as a preacher After a few years in the liberal destination: in the mosque in the Catalan town of Ripoll, where he pro- ceeded to recruit the young men to become terrorists (Rubin, “Unfortunately in the liberal, open society nobody notices my Kingsley, & Karasz, 2017). The primary recruitment tool he specialness. I am narcissistically injured by that. I want to retaliate utilized involved bestowing the young recruits special treat- so that everyone will finally notice me. I have to do something ment that involved individualized trips with him to Morocco, spectacular that is in keeping with my special identity.” Belgium, and other towns in Spain. Remark: For a comprehensive discussion, the reader is encouraged to study the author’s previous publications on The Process of Radicalization and Its this topic. Relevance to Terrorism Prevention The case of Uzbek nationals should serve as an example: The vast majority of terrorists come from countries where In October 2017, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, an Uzbek political and religious oppression is a fact of life. The highest national, drove a rental truck into the crowd on a bike path representation of such countries is among Muslim majority in lower Manhattan, New York, killing eight people and and Arab nations that together comprise 50 countries, and injuring a dozen others. In April 2017, Uzbek national approximately 1.6 billion people. And while there are coun- Rakhmat Akilov drove a truck into pedestrians in Stockholm, tries that are neither Arab (The Philippines) nor Muslim Sweden, killing five people. Earlier in that same month, (Myanmar) where political or religious oppression exists, in Akbarzhon Jalilov, a Russian citizen, who was born in all Arab and Muslim majority countries there exists political Kyrgyzstan but of Uzbek heritage, blew himself up on a and/or religious oppression or both to varying degrees (Kis- train in St. Petersburg, Russia, killing 15 people along with Benedek, 2016). himself. In the early hours of New Year’s Day of 2017, Vaisman-Tzachor 5 another Uzbek national, Abdulkadir Masharipov, attacked a authorities in determination of inadmissibility cases against party at a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 39 revelers claims of hardship to qualifying relatives (Aranda, 2016; (Ott, 2017). No terrorist attacks were recorded in Uzbekistan Vaisman-Tzachor, 2003, 2012). Ordinarily, undocumented for many years. aliens who are deemed inadmissible for immigration pur- Uzbek nationals and Uzbeks constituted the largest single poses claim on behalf of their relatives (usually U.S.-born group of Central Asia jihadists to join ISIS in Syria in 2014, citizen children, but not exclusively) hardship if the aliens and in 2015, their numbers were estimated between 500 and are to be removed from the country. Often in such cases, a 2,500. While the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) psychological evaluation is used to assess the strength and formed in 1998 with the objective of creating an Islamic state dependability of the relationships between aliens and quali- in Uzbekistan, it pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015 and fying relatives, and to determine the potential hardship to changed its stated goals to a global caliphate instead. Most befall qualifying relatives if the aliens are to be removed experts believe that local security services have been able to (Cervantes, Mejia, & Mena, 2010). It is hereby recom- maintain the peace within the country by controlling and dis- mended that all cases adjudicated for undocumented aliens mantling underground politicized religious groups. Thus, to be routinely subjected to psychological evaluations to but- political and religious oppression from within effectively tress vetting and terrorism prevention efforts within this pushed all would-be jihadists out of the country. Hence, the group. peace gained by the politically and religiously oppressive The third category involves refugees and asylum seekers regime in Uzbekistan at home came at the expense of Western where psychological evaluations are often conducted, but nations who received many of these would-be terrorists into usually for applicants who are already on U.S. soil and are their folds under the guise of political asylum seekers seeking asylum from persecution in their country of origin. (Laruelle, 2017). While it is unclear to what extent this Such psychological evaluations ordinarily are offered in lieu exportation of terrorism is intended by the Uzbek govern- of other evidence about the alleged persecution the appli- ment, there are other countries known to actively purvey ter- cants have suffered, or are expected to suffer if returned, rorism (most notably, Iran), possibly as a pressure release when other evidence is typically missing. As can be expected, valve of internal oppression tensions. the majority of refugees and asylum applicants leave their countries of origin in a haste under threats to their lives. Therefore, they often lack basic evidentiary materials that Types of Psychological Evaluations for could corroborate their claims of persecution in their country Immigration Courts of origin. Consequently, the only evidence for what had been There are numerous and diverse circumstances that bring perpetrated or could have been perpetrated upon them is people to immigrate to the United States, and consequently commonly found in their psychological makeup and emo- similar number of potential legal considerations for their tional reactions, ordinarily in the form of posttrauma syn- adjudication which could be assisted by psychological evalu- dromes (Aranda, 2016; Frumkin & Friedland, 1995; ations. Despite their diversity, the cases processed by immi- Vaisman-Tzachor, 2014). gration authorities can be generally subsumed under three distinct categories: (a) legal immigrants, (b) undocumented The Process and Structure of immigrants, and (c) asylum seekers. Psychological Evaluations for The first category of legal immigrants is ordinarily pro- Immigration Courts cessed through the embassies, consulates, and other state department entities in the United States and abroad accord- Psychological evaluations for immigration purposes are cur- ing to customary protocols set forth by immigration law. In rently usually initiated by either applicants, or their legal rep- some of these instances (usually marriage to a U.S. citizen resentatives, concurrently, or immediately following the or other family unification processes), there is also reli- filing of immigration applications with U.S. authorities. ance on psychological evaluations to provide evidentiary Ordinarily, the persons applying would meet over the course support to immigration applications (Vaisman-Tzachor, of a few sessions for several hours with a psychology expert 2003, 2012). This article proposes that with a few excep- who would interview applicants, observe, and record interac- tions for persons who because of some obvious limitations tions with applicants, and administer a variety of psychologi- (e.g., serious disability, advanced age, etc.) do not repre- cal tests. At the conclusion of the evaluation process, the sent a risk of terrorism, most immigration applications in psychology expert produces a written report, which is then this category should be also subject to routine psychologi- submitted to immigration authorities and becomes eviden- cal evaluations as a vetting device to enhance terrorism tiary material for consideration in the ultimate ruling. prevention. Occasionally, psychology experts are also called upon to tes- The second category of undocumented immigrants is tify in legal proceedings about their evaluations and their where more commonly psychological evaluations are being findings, to assist immigration courts in rendering decisions used. Those are typically designed to assist immigration (Aranda, 2016; Vaisman-Tzachor, 2012, 2014). 6 SAGE Open In the course of interviews and observations with the psy- presented into evidence is based on scientific principles and chology expert, the applicants produce a historical account discoveries that are well recognized and widely accepted in of their lives and current circumstances, which are then com- the respective scientific community (Frye), and that evi- pared with results of other objective tests used in the process. dence offered to the court is reached with better than chance The applicants are given a series of objective psychological (which would be above 50%) or reasonable degree of psy- tests that are designed to generate a valid psychological rep- chological certainty (Daubert). resentation of the persons taking the tests. Obviously, the Stemming from FRE are specific demands for a particular greater the congruence between the accounts of the appli- approach from the forensic psychology expert that are also cants and their psychological makeup emerging out of their consistent with prevailing professional standard of care. That assessment results, the greater the reliability of their histori- means that selection of instruments and procedures for the cal accounts, which is relevant for terrorism prevention as evaluation would be those which would extract clinically rel- well. In addition, the psychological evaluations typically evant information, that the psychological tests used are com- also seek to map the constellation of interpersonal relations mercially available, that the tests’ reliability must be the persons applying for immigration are embedded in, the considered, that the tests are relevant to the legal issues, that qualities of those relations, and their importance to the appli- assessment administration is done in a standard fashion, that cants and to their relatives (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2012). This tests selected are applicable to the population studied (by dimension is also crucial in assisting immigration authorities norms) and for the purpose used, that preference is given to about the fate of the applicants and is also directly relevant objective tests, and to those which incorporate response style for terrorism prevention. (also known as validity scales) into their scoring and inter- The outcome of the psychological assessment process is pretation scheme (American Psychological Association then recorded in a written report by the psychology expert, [APA], 1985, 1991; Babitsky, Mangraviti, & Babitsky, which is then submitted to immigration authorities for their 2006). consideration. This final step not only allows (as it now does) for immigration authorities to utilize the psychological The Utility of Psychological Material to assessment results in rendering their judgments, but could Terrorism Prevention Efforts also allow, if implemented, yet another type of review by homeland security personnel about the relative risk the In a federally funded research project conducted by the immigration applicants evaluated pose for terrorism threats. author at the behest of President George W. Bush administra- tion at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, between 2002 and 2004, and subsequent publica- Information Gleaned in Psychological tions (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, 2012), the case for use Evaluations for Immigration of psychological information in terrorism prevention was The information gathered about immigration applicants made. At the core of the argument is that the motivation for when undergoing a psychological evaluation amounts to individuals to become terrorists is largely psychological, and fairly accurate and complete psychological representations that particular psychological makeups and circumstances of the persons involved. That means that the immigration could help predict who is more likely to be a terrorist. Also, applicants’ character structures, their developmental tracks, the vulnerability to be effectively recruited to terrorist activ- their emotional dilemmas, their personality strengths, and ity is also largely psychologically predicated based on char- their typical behavioral tendencies are all flushed out. In acter makeup. Consequently, those persons who are found to addition, major webs of applicants’ interpersonal connec- fit better the psychological profile of would-be terrorists tions, be it familial or social, are also gathered. Including in should receive greater scrutiny, and more thorough assess- this interpersonal map of personal connections are persons ment by immigration and law enforcement authorities. who had particular influence upon the applicants, which is While the psychological profile of terrorists is not consid- also especially relevant to terrorism prevention. This is ered a fixed “structure” or a simply identifiable set of static because many of the individuals who launched terrorist mental characteristics, the research on this topic identified attacks are known to have been inspired or radicalized by particular personality tendencies and combinations of cir- terrorism recruiters in their respective communities cumstances, which could lead to higher likelihood of a person (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2012). either being susceptible to recruitment or actually becoming a Because psychological evaluations for immigration courts terrorist. As such, certain psychological aspects were isolated are governed by Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE), they are as “markers” or factors, which when existing in combination responsive to the demands set forth by the 1923 Frye Test of with other factors and identified in a person could direct Evidence, and by the 1993 Daubert Standard (American Bar authorities to increase scrutiny of that individual. Association, 2010; Otto & Heilburn, 2002; Weiner & Hess, Among the most notable factors emerging out of this 2006). These demands require that information obtained and research are the identifiable narcissistic character Vaisman-Tzachor 7 organization, coupled with particular insults to the person’s Ordinarily, the assessment of suicide risk measures a vari- grandiose sense of self (also known as ego-injuries) in their ety of factors that had been found by research to possess a personal history, and combined with a palpable desire for certain degree of statistically reliable predictive value for notoriety. In the insults to the person’s sense of self-worth are ultimate suicide behavior (Franklin et al., 2017). Thus, the all the feelings of marginality and disaffection sometimes greater the number of factors and/or the greater the intensity found in members of migrant communities. For a complete of the suicide risk factors presented by the individual, the discussion of these and other isolated psychological factors, higher the level of risk for suicide assigned to the individual. which together form a dynamic psychological profile of Correspondingly, the greater the assessed risk of suicide, the likely terrorists, please see prior author publications more urgent and intrusive the preventive efforts are required (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, 2012). to thwart the danger (including arrest and involuntary hospi- In similar vein, but in the opposite direction, there are psy- talization). In any event, the ethical guidelines and standard chological factors that had been commonly identified in of care does not call for clinicians to accurately predict future immigrants (particularly undocumented and asylum seekers), behaviors of individuals—only to adequately assess the risk but which are not typical motivating factors for persons join- of suicide and intervene accordingly (APA, 2016; Franklin ing terrorist organizations. Because of the horrific conditions et al., 2017). of abuse and destitution, many undocumented and asylum In similar fashion, the psychological evaluation of immi- seekers leave behind; the immensely perilous and often dev- gration applicants for terrorism prevention does not seek to astating experiences of migration en route to the United predict who will ultimately become a terrorist and who will States, coupled with many personal losses sustained and fears not, since this is not possible. It only seeks to assign a level of about survival, leave most with distinct psychological trauma risk of terrorism, which will direct authorities in further pre- (Aranda, 2016). Consequently, the common psychological ventive efforts commensurate with the assigned level of risk. profile of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers is a Similar to the study of suicide, terrorism has also been studied combination with varying degrees of posttraumatic stress dis- from a psychological perspective and several reliable predic- order, major depressive disorder, and anxiety disorders. tive factors have been identified over the years, which could As can be easily observed, the psychological profiles of become the foundation for assignment of terrorism level of undocumented and asylum seekers and the psychological risk (Post & Denny, 2002; Shermer, 2006; Silke, 2003; profiles of would-be terrorists are markedly different and Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, 2012; Zagorin & Duffy, 2005). distinct. While the first group of immigrants (undocumented, Along with some demographic characteristics (including eth- asylum) presents with largely trauma-related symptoms and nic membership, religious affiliation, age, gender, etc.) are a psychological image of victims of terrible circumstances, some psychological markers (mostly emanating from a narcis- the second group of (would-be terrorists) immigrants pres- sistic character organization), which are considered to have ents with narcissism, grandiosity, desire for notoriety, and higher predictive validity for ultimate terrorist behaviors. signs they sustained insults and blows to their sense of self- When such are identified, immigration authorities would worth (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, 2012). be alerted, and exercise their legal authority, including but not limited to placing a person on the Terrorism Watch-List, placing a person on a No-Flight List, increased surveillance Actuarial-Based Psychological of immigrants allowed into the country, and all the way to Evaluations denying entry visa into the United States, to name only some. In many ways, the psychological evaluation of immigrants Obviously, the level of terrorism risk would be compiled for terrorism prevention follows the same conceptual from the quantity and intensity of the predictive factors iden- framework of prevalent psychological evaluations for sui- tified in the psychological evaluation, similar to the suicide cide prevention. Current standard of care in psychological evaluation. Likewise, the prevention measures to be applied practice calls for all clinicians to assess and intervene in by authorities will be commensurate with the level of situations when patients are suicidal. While the American assessed risk, so that higher level of risk will beget stronger Psychological Association ethics code and most state laws intervention efforts, and lesser level of risk will receive lesser recognize the imperative to prevent death by suicide, they intervention efforts (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, 2012). also recognize that clinicians’ abilities to predict future behaviors of individuals is no better than chance (APA, Illustrative Examples 2016; Ribeiro, Bodell, Hames, Hagan, & Joiner, 2013). Therefore, current standards call for an assessment of sui- The Case of Omer Ali cide by all clinicians across the board, which will produce a measure of risk (e.g., none, slight, moderate, high, grave, Mr. Omer Mohammed Ali was a member of the Issaks tribe imminent, etc.), and a corresponding intervention plan and a native of Hargeisa, a town in the northern region of which is commensurate with the assessed level of risk Somalia, which by the mid 1980s became the center of ethnic (Ribeiro et al., 2013). dispute with the government of dictator Siad Barre (Ragavan, 8 SAGE Open 1999). Like many of his tribe’s youth, he was 15 years old norms and values than indication of his violent tendencies, when he was recruited to fight for the Somalia National and that Mr. Ali represented a very low risk to U.S. society Movement (SNM) against the Barre dictatorship. He received (Matter of Ali, 2005). paramilitary training, participated in some of the fighting, and later became an informant for SNM while his father was Analysis of the Case still a minister in the government of Siad Barre. With the intensification of the civil war, Ali’s family moved to the The attentive reader would have noted that in 1989, Mr. Ali capital, Mogadishu, where the fighting soon caught up with had no difficulty obtaining a student visa (I-20) to enter the them there as well. In 1989, attempting to escape the war, United States, from a country that was engulfed in a bloody Mr. Omer Ali obtained a student visa (I-20) and moved to civil war. As Ragavan (1999) contemporaneously noted, the Seattle, Washington, to live with tribe members and pursue United States had become in those years a haven for thou- undergraduate studies. Subsequently, some of his family sands of war criminals who tortured and killed millions of members managed to escape to Kenya and became refugees their people in Haiti, Somalia, Cambodia, El Salvador, there, whereas others less fortunate were either tortured and Guatemala, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia, to name slaughtered (the men), or tortured and raped (the women). only some. Immigration authorities in his case had conducted In 1990, Mr. Omer Ali applied for political asylum, which absolutely no assessment of this person nor could they have gave him a U.S. work permit that was then periodically done so when the government institutions in Somalia had all renewed until it was finally denied in the late 1990s. He later but collapsed. What could have been done at that time was a moved to Southern California, met and married his wife psychological evaluation to identify potential risk factors for (who was also a member of the Issaks tribe) in 1997, and terrorism affiliation or motives. sired three children with her. She was a naturalized U.S. citi- It is important to realize that Mr. Omer Ali’s entry into the zen who escaped the same town a few years after he did, and United States with a student visa subsequently also allowed for the same exact circumstances. He continued his educa- him to change his status to asylum applicant, and to remain in tion and managed to obtain certifications to work as an assis- the country for an extended period of years. His affiliations tant chiropractor and assistant physical therapist and and loyalties notwithstanding, the first time he came to the managed to obtain employment in a large medical facility. attention of immigration authorities for special consideration During the late 1990s, Mr. Ali was involved in a physical and vetting as a potential risk to U.S. society was 5 years after altercation during a party at his home, which was reported to he first entered the United States (!). During this time, Mr. Ali police because both he and his counterpart were taken to could have wrecked havoc and destruction in the United States emergency room for treatment of minor wounds. His politi- in many unimaginable ways, if he was so inclined. cal asylum applications were subsequently repeatedly Only when Judge Latimore decided she could not allow a denied, and he was eventually ordered to appear before Judge violent man permanent resident status without further inves- Latimore of Los Angeles Federal Immigration Court in early tigation did he receive the kind of attention he should have 2000s for a deportation hearing. received in the first place. Note also that by the time he came Alarmed by the police report of interpersonal violence, to be considered for immigrant status, Mr. Ali had formed Judge Latimore in 2003 justly raised the concern that Mr. Ali other familial ties (marriage to a naturalized U.S. citizen and may represent a danger to U.S. society and moved to deport having three U.S.-born American citizen children) that would him back to Somalia. Mr. Omer Ali’s attorney prevailed upon have made his deportation that much more difficult to obtain, the judge and hired the author to conduct a psychological if such was sought (Matter of Ali, 2005). evaluation of Mr. Ali and his family and to offer observations Equally important and totally missed by immigration and recommendations to the court for consideration. The authorities at the time, and allowing his free passage as a psychological evaluation revealed that Mr. Omer Ali was student in to the United States, was Mr. Ali’s affiliation to a traumatized by the civil war in Somalia and the many per- paramilitary organization (SNM), and his father’s affiliation sonal losses he experienced. He tested as a person who to the dictatorship as a minister in Siad Barre’s government. avoids conflict and shies from violence, which made him in Either loyalties of Mr. Ali, to his father and Barre’s govern- the past a poor active participant in the SNM military cam- ment, or to membership in SNM should have ordinarily paign in Somalia. The psychological study also discovered caused his student visa application to be denied. At the very that he scuffled with his friend over an insult that required least, his connections should have raised serious concerns, him to respond with some degree of measured violence to where a more thorough evaluation should have been con- uphold his family honor, as is customary in the Issaks tribe, ducted to reveal his motives in coming to the United States, but not because he wanted to. The evidence suggested that but neither raised a red flag. neither participant in the brawl filed an official complaint In retrospect, it was discovered through psychological against the other, and that in fact, they remained friends analysis that Mr. Omer Ali was indeed a true refugee escap- thereafter. This, the evaluator argued, was more likely a rep- ing the civil war in Somalia, and not a would-be terrorist on resentation of the poor socialization of Mr. Ali to American U.S. soil. His psychological profile and emotional Vaisman-Tzachor 9 presentation was of a person who was traumatized by the war Farook’s office holiday party in San Bernardino killing 14 that ravaged his country, and someone who is desperately and wounding 22 before they were also killed in a police trying to escape the violence. He exhibited no particular shootout later that afternoon. strong affiliation loyalties to either party in the conflict, and exhibited none of the characteristic psychological markers Analysis of the Case found in most terrorists (namely, narcissistic character traits) (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2006, 2007, 2012). For a more thorough There appear to have been a few opportunities for authorities discussion of the psychological evaluation for asylum appli- to be alerted to the potential risk that Mr. Syed Farook, his cations and its products, see author’s 2014 article. friend Enrique Marquez Jr., and Farook’s wife, Ms. Tashfeen Malik represented. First, the marriage of Marquez to Mariya Chernikh and her sister’s marriage to Farook’s older brother The Case of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen could have alerted immigration authorities to the fraudulent Malik nature of the relationships. While in and of themselves not terrorism-related offenses, they could have trained a spot- Syed Farook became friends with the coconspirator and col- light on these individuals and their other, more nefarious laborator of the San Bernardino terror attack Enrique activities, and possibly deter them from executing their plot. Marquez Jr. as a teenager. They were neighbors in a suburb A routine psychological evaluation for immigration of the of Riverside, California, where they also attended a local two married couples (Farook and Chernikh and Marquez and mosque together. Over time, they apparently became radical- Chernykh) would have revealed fairly quickly that the cou- ized and began to plot terrorist attacks involving launching ples were not romantically involved and fraudulently con- pipe bombs into the cafeteria of Riverside City College, ceived. If nothing else, it would have put Mr. Farook’s older shooting people as they fled, and opening fire on drivers on brother and Mr. Marquez Jr. out of the picture with sentences the 91 Freeway during rush hour. To bring their terrifying of 10 to 15 years in federal prison each, unable to assist in plans to fruition, they began to amass weapons and explo- any future terrorism attacks. Although not entirely stopping sives 4 years before the San Bernardino massacre. Their plot, Mr. Syed Farook from pursuing his Jihad, it could have pos- however, never came to fruition as in 2012, three other con- sibly deterred him from continuing to plot in the absence of spirators were arrested in the same region (Inland Empire, his friend and brother, and with greater authority scrutiny California) on suspicion of plotting to kill Americans upon him. (Serrano, Esquivel, & Knoll, 2015). The other point in time when immigration authorities Seeking less illustrious venues thereafter, Marquez mar- failed to detect and could have detected a would-be terrorist ried for money Mariya Chernykh so she can obtain legal sta- was in the processing of the K-1 “fiancee” visa for Ms. tus in the United States, as did Farook’s older brother who Tashfeen Malik. First, it goes without saying that asking a married Mariya’s sister under similar pretenses. The person about their “intentions to engage in terrorist activi- Chernykh sisters came from Russia on J-1 visas—commonly ties while in the U.S.” is a naive and ridiculous procedure used for educational and cultural programs, and overstayed to vet a person. It is only slightly ahead of an almost equally their visas. The fake marriage is in an of itself, a Federal pathetic and absurd second check of fingerprints and facial offense carrying 10 to 15 years in prison. Before the attack in recognition software. None of those could nor did identify San Bernardino in December 2015, however, Enrique what was in this woman’s mind and heart—namely, that she Marquez also purchased for Farook and his wife Malik two was going to massacre as many Americans as she could, assault rifles that were subsequently used in the massacre. and that she was going to lie about it all the way to the Sometime in 2012, Mr. Syed Farook met Tashfeen bloody end. A psychological evaluation of this woman and Malik, a Pakistani woman who was raised in Saudi Arabia, a psychological evaluation of this matrimony would have and who hailed from a family with reputed ties to Islamic revealed essential clues about the personality elements that militants in Punjab. The couple met first online through an could portend ultimate terrorist behavior. A thorough Islamic matrimonial website, and he subsequently traveled review of her developmental history and psychological to Saudi Arabia in 2013 to meet her in person. They then testing of her character alone would have revealed her nar- obtained a K-1 “fiancee” visa for Malik to enter the coun- cissistic tendencies and her vulnerability to terrorism try with Farook. In the process, she underwent “extensive recruitment (Vaisman-Tzachor, 2012). Likewise, a closer counter-terrorism screening” by U.S. immigration authori- examination of the motives of the Farook–Malik matrimo- ties that included checks of fingerprints and facial recogni- nial union could have pointed to obvious commonalities in tion software, and questioned about her intentions to their radical Islamic views and lifestyle. Although the psy- “engage in terrorist activities while in the U.S.” (Serrano chological evaluations for immigration could not necessar- et al., 2015). The two married in 2014 in Islam’s holy city ily predict the gruesome crimes this couple subsequently of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, and returned to the United States committed, it could have revealed warning signs for author- where they resumed their preparations for the attack. They ities to follow with greater rigor. ultimately launched their terrorist act in December 2015 in 10 SAGE Open assessments for immigration have been an invaluable tool Ethical and Validity Considerations in the aid of immigration authorities in the past two decades In the case of the proposed psychological evaluations to all to assist in decision making regarding a variety of immi- immigrant types across the board, several ethical issues gration applicants. The same psychological evaluations for should be considered. The first concern involves the consent immigration, if applied systematically across the board to for a psychological evaluation which is ethically required all categories of immigration applicants, can also generate (APA, 1991, 2016) of all subjects in a forensic psychology a terrorism risk assessment for each individual. study. Ordinarily, consent should be obtained from all partici- Subsequently, immigration and homeland security authori- pants at the outset of an evaluation, without undue pressure ties can then deploy appropriate terrorism preventive mea- on subjects to provide it (which may not necessarily conform sures that are coherent and commensurate with the level of to the situation of an immigration application). When undue risk each immigrant more likely poses. pressure on subjects is present, the results of the evaluation could be skewed in the direction of defensive response pat- Declaration of Conflicting Interests terns, which may not accurately reflect upon the true motives The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect of the individuals studied. While this could potentially pres- to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. ent a threat to the validity of the findings because of defen- siveness, and could potentially hamper terrorism preventive Funding efforts, the requirement to participate in a psychological eval- uation is likely to be perceived by most as no more than The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author- ship, and/or publication of this article. another tier in the already cumbersome immigration process. 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Homeland Security Studies and Psychology Conference, Berlin, Germany. Analysis Institute. Retrieved from http://www.anser.org/docs/ Ragavan, C. (1999, November 15). A safe haven, but for whom? reports/Implications_from_Arab_Spring_on_HS.pdf U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved from https://www.cja. org/downloads/Ali_USNews&World_11.15.99.pdf Author Biography Ribeiro, J. D., Bodell, L. P., Hames, J. L., Hagan, C. R., & Joiner, T. E. (2013). An empirically based approach to the assessment and Reuben Vaisman-Tzachor, PhD, FACFEI, DABPS, FAPA, management of suicidal behavior. Journal of Psychotherapy DABCHS. Obtained his doctorate in clinical psychology from the Integration, 23, 207-221. California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles in Rubin, A. J., Kingsley, P., & Karasz, P. (2017, August, 20). 1993. He is a fellow at the American College of Forensic Barcelona attack suspects had ties to imam linked to ISIS. The Examiners Institute in Clinical and Forensic Psychology, a diplo- New York Times. Retrieved from https://nyti.ms/2vQrDCX mate of the American Board of Psychology Specialties, a fellow at Searl, A. C., Schwartz, S. G., Beck, E., Diza, U., & Minich, J. the American Psychotherapy Association, and a diplomate of the M. (2017, April). Bridges and bandits on the road to New American Board of Certification in Homeland Security. He has Jerusalem: A study of the correlation between immigration been an adjunct professor of doctors of clinical and forensic psy- and terrorism (The Research and Scholarship Symposium). chology programs at Alliant International University, at National Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/research_ University, at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in scholarship_symposium/2017/podium_presentations/15 Los Angeles, California and an adjunct professor of clinical psy- Serrano, R. A., Esquivel, P., & Knoll, C. (2015, December 14). chology at Argosy University and Antioch University in Los Everything we know about the San Bernardino terror attack Angeles, California for 25 years. He has conducted research and investigation so far. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http:// published numerous articles starting in 1991 on various topics www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-san-bernardino- involving psychological aspects of terrorism prevention, psycho- shooting-terror-investigation-htmlstory.html logical profiles of terrorists, and profiling terrorists, as well as Shermer, M. (2006, January). Murdercide: Science unravels the various seminal articles on psychological evaluations for federal myth of suicide bombers. Scientific American, 294(1), 34. immigration courts in cases of asylum and inadmissibility. He is Silke, A. (2003). Terrorists, victims and society: Psychological licensed psychologist in California, he is the director and owner of perspectives on terrorism and its consequences. Hoboken, NJ: the Counseling Center of Santa Monica – A Psychological John Wiley. Corporation, a private practice in Los Angeles, California and he Strange, H., Badcock, J., & Evans, M. (2017, August 21). is formerly an attending psychologist at Cedars Sinai Medical Barcelona attack suspect Younes Abouyaaqoub shot by Center in Los Angeles for 16 years.

Journal

SAGE OpenSAGE

Published: Jul 2, 2018

Keywords: psychological evaluations; immigration; terrorism prevention

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