Are immigrants terrorists?

To begin with we should distinguish between those who cross borders without permission and those who cross with permission.  In the United States it is alleged that illegal immigrants, people crossing the border without proper permission, enter the country and commit crimes.  Once again I defer to Dr. Daniel Caroll Rodas immigrationmdcr.com and his book, Christians at the border.

I want to dispel a myth which has been circulated widely.  It is in some ways merely a confusion, but sometimes one wonders at the continued spreading of this confusion which is in fact easily refuted.

When one speaks of immigrants and terrorists to US citizens one often hears the refrain that the 9/11 bombings in New York City, Shanksville, PA and Washington DC were carried out by immigrants.  This is false.  None of the men involved in the bombings were in the US on an immigration visa.  None had gone through the extreme vetting that all immigrants go through.

One source has estimated the danger of being killed by a legitimate immigrant is 1 in 3.86 billion.  "the chance of an American being murdered in a terrorist attack by a refugee is about 1 in 3.86 billion per year, while the annual chance of being murdered in an attack committed by an illegal immigrant is zero." Alex Nowrasteh  "Terrorists by Immigration Status and Nationality: A Risk Analysis, 1975–2017" https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/terrorists-immigration-status-nationality-risk-analysis-1975-2017 You are more likely to be murdered by a citizen born in the US than by a legal immigrant.

If this is true, why do people fear immigrants and why does this myth continue to circulate?  On the one hand, the process by which you become a legal immigrant to the US is extremely careful.  From the first UNHCR registration to contact with a US Resettlement Service Center to being supported by a registered US agency which agrees to help settle the immigrants, to the final crossing of the US border at an airport or other border, a potential immigrant can be refused at any stage.

On the other hand some people of diverse origin have committed terrorist acts in the US.  In the case of the 9/11 bombers they entered the US on business visas, student visas and tourist visas.  None were scrutinized as the legal immigrant is processed.

There are other examples but for space I will only deal with one more (if you want more buy the book!).  The two Tsarnaev brothers, who carried out the Boston Marathon Bombing, were not strictly speaking immigrants in the sense that they did not go through the steps necessary to immigrate, which are required of migrants seeking to enter the United States.  Their parents came on tourist visas from Chechnya and the brothers were minors.  The parents were granted asylum for political reasons. The Tsarnaev brothers were radicalized while in the US.  

Any time anyone of a Muslim background carries out a terrorist attack the assumption made is that they are immigrants. Carefully look into the situation.  Most were radicalized while in the United States (besides the Tsarnaevs, Rizwan Farook, who was from a pacifist Muslim community, Ahmadiyya community). 

There is no instance of a legal immigrant committing a terrorist acts since 1970s. "Of the 3,252,493 refugees admitted from 1975 to the end of 2015, 20 were terrorists, which amounted to 0.00062 percent of the total.... Of the 20, only three were successful in their attacks, killing a total of three people and imposing a total human cost of $45 million, or $13.84 per refugee visa issued. The three refugee terrorists were Cubans who committed their attacks in the 1970s and were admitted before the Refugee Act of 1980 created the modern rigorous refugee-screening procedures currently in place." (see Nowrasteh) 

The evidence is clear.  No one who has been vetted (and the vetting has been "extreme," i.e. very careful: biometric photos, fingerprints, histories, identity checks, health checks, etc.) has carried out a terrorist attack. There is no need to fear immigrants who have gone through the usual US immigration process.