Ahmed Alghamdi entered the United States legally under a student visa. As far as anyone knows, he never attended a U.S. college. All we do know is that Ahmed Alghamdi helped to hijack the jetliner flown into the south tower of the World Trade Center.

During the investigation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was not only unable to determine exactly when Alghamdi had entered the U.S., they also had no idea of where he had been or what he had been doing. Alghamdi had been just another invisible non-permanent foreign national, whose location and legal status remained unknown by the U.S. government, until Sept. 11, 2001.

In an attempt to close holes that may have allowed Ahmed Alghamdi and other terrorists to enter the U.S.,  President Bush has taken steps to ramp-up enforcement of existing immigration laws.

White House Creates Terrorist Tracking Task Force
On October 29, the Homeland Security Council, at its first full meeting, created the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force to coordinate the efforts of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and related federal agencies in:

• deny entry into the U.S. of aliens associated with, suspected of being engaged in or supporting terrorist activity; and
• locate, detain, prosecute, or deport any such aliens already present in the U.S.

To be appointed no later than November 1 by Attorney General Ashcroft, the Task Force will be made up of experts from the State Department, FBI, INS, Secret Service, Customs Service and the intelligence community.

Once organized, the Task Force will:

• Review student visa programs with goals of ensuring that the visas are appropriately issued and to prohibit the education of foreign nationals who would use their training to harm the United States and its Allies. 
• Better coordinates immigration and customs policies with Canada and Mexico.

In addition, president Bush has directed:

• the Attorney General and Secretary of the Treasury to enhance the investigative and intelligence analysis capabilities of the INS and the Customs Service, and to increase INS and Customs special agent personnel assigned to Joint Terrorism Task Forces
• the Office of Science and Technology Policy to work with the Attorney General and the Director of Central Intelligence to make recommendations on advanced technology that could be used to aid immigration enforcement
• the Office of Management and Budget to work with the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security to develop a budgetary plan to support this effort

Homeland Security Council (HSC) getting organized

Director Tom Ridge has been working to organize his Office of Homeland Security. The Office now has a Web site located at http://www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/. Along with the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force, described above, eleven Policy Coordination Committees have been created to implement HSC polices throughout the many federal departments and agencies involved, and with state and local governments. The Policy Coordination Committees are:

1.   Detection, Surveillance, and Intelligence
2.   Plans, Training, Exercises, and Evaluation
3.   Law Enforcement and Investigation
4.   Weapons of Mass Destruction Consequence Management
5.   Key Asset, Border, Territorial Waters, and Airspace Security
6.   Domestic Transportation Security
7.   Research and Development
8.   Medical and Public Health Preparedness
9.   Domestic Threat Response and Incident Management
10.  Economic Consequences
11.  Public Affairs

President Bush created the Office of Homeland Security and the Homeland Security Council through an Executive Order of Oct. 8, 2001, which assigned the Office to "develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks."