Earlier this month Uniglobe Entertainment released a new film about the dangers of unbridled immigration into the U.S. America Invaded was produced by Namrata Singh Gujral, an award-winning Indian-American film maker. Ms. Gujral is a Democrat and previously worked on progressive topics. Such as the challenges faced by Third World immigrants to America. And transgender dancers at Indian weddings. One suspects that after America Invaded she won’t be invited to quite as many Hollywood cocktail parties. For this film lays out a lot of inconvenient truths.

Illegals Commit Crimes. But Terrorism Would Be Worse

Its jarring approach? Juxtaposing the sacrifices made by post-9/11 American warfighters “over there” with examples of slaughter back here by the same type of folks our soldiers are fighting. Thanks to our porous, unpoliced southern border. We already know that substantial numbers of illegal immigrants are criminals. One from Venezuela is charged with killing UGA nursing student Laken Reilly last week. Such atrocities are bad enough. But this film deals with a potentially even more bloody register. Terrorism.

Are We Any Safer 20+ Years After 9/11?

The first clip is of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center. We are then told that some of the 19 suicide bomber hijackers were on fake or expired visas. Then we see President George W. Bush speaking about our invasions of Afghanistan, then Iraq. Followed by Obama announcing the killing of Usama bin Ladin. And then Biden commenting on our disastrous pull-out from Afghanistan. The key question: are we any safer, two decades after 9/11, than we were then?

The Human Cost of the GWOT 

We learn that Buchanan High School in Fresno, California, had eight students enlist in the military and die in the “Global War on Terror” (GWOT). More than any other high school in the country. Gujral interviews a number of surviving family members of other service members who either died in combat, or committed suicide. Debbie Mason’s son Roy Brooks Mason, Iraq veteran, killed himself in 2009. Marine Corp vet Beau Wise tearfully discussed how both his brothers died in Afghanistan. Jeremy, a Navy SEAL, and Ben, a U.S. Army soldier. Shana Chappell lost both her sons to the GWOT. Kareem was killed in Kabul. And years later her other son, Dakota, killed himself at the site of his brother’s memorial.

 The Numbers Don’t Lie

Interspersed with these heart-wrenching accounts are interviews with various officials and journalists, who point out the absurdity of allowing virtually unvetted immigration to undermine the sacrifices of our service members and their families. Gujral’s anecdotal data is telling. But let’s put it in empirical context. Almost 7,000 American soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan, post-9/11. Another 7,800 American contractors were killed. We and our allies did kill 100,000 jihadist/insurgents. But also perhaps 250,000 civilians in each country. (The financial cost? Perhaps $8 trillion.)

Legal Immigrants Can Be Terrorists

Meanwhile, back in the homeland, illegals and, yes, terrorists are exploiting the loopholes in our visa, asylum, and refugee entry portals. Expert Todd Bensman is shown several times, commenting on this dire topic. Such as Dr. Muhammad Masood, a Pakistani given a visa to work at the Mayo Clinic. He was convicted of helping, and wanting to join, ISIS. At least he was caught. How many more were not? The asylum and refugee routes are also rife with corruption. United Nations, and other, officials have been caught selling legitimate refugee files — that is, for people with legitimate reasons to fear persecution where they live — to the highest bidders who simply want to come to America. Such as Somali war criminals.

When the U.S. bugged out of Afghanistan in summer 2021, 83,000 Afghans were brought here. The vast majority of those, some 80%, were never vetted. Some may be Taliban or ISIS or al-Qaeda, for all we know. Recent jihadist attacks inside the U.S. were carried out by people who were here legally. The Tsarnaev brothers, perpetrators of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, were asylum seekers from Chechnya. The 2015 San Bernadino jihadists, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 Americans. She was here on a K-1 visa. The Manhattan “truck jihadist,” Sayfullah Saipov, killed eight New Yorkers. He was in the U.S. on a “diversity visa.” Mohammed Sa’id al-Shamrani was here training with the Saudi Air Force. He killed three people at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in 2019. In 2022, there were 853,955 visa overstays in America. Our government has no idea where most of them are, or what they’re up to.

What about Illegals?

And that’s just the legal immigration side of the coin. What about illegals? As of 2021, there were over 10 million “unauthorized immigrants” here. Then came the Biden deluge. His administration has allowed another 7.2 million to breach our borders. In fiscal 2023 alone, that included 736 known or suspected terrorists. Vikram Sood, the head of India’s spy agency RAW (“Research and Analysis Wing”), warns that another attack on America from these ranks “is only a matter of execution at an opportune time.” The U.S. government is greatly underestimating its enemies’ desires to destroy the U.S.

Yes, Virginia, Most Terrorists Are Muslims

Those enemies are first and foremost Islamic ones, as anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear knows, and as the former examples attest. Gujral does try to be even-handed on this issue. She went to India to interview Islamic scholar and, frankly, apologist Iqtidar Muhammad Khan. He pontificated with the usual boilerplate that weaponized jihad is only a last resort. And that the Arabic term “Islam” means “peace.” (It actually means “submission.”) Here’s what Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Raymond Ibrahim, and yours truly have to say about those mendacities.

Deported Veterans A Major Problem

One major subplot of this film is the plight of non-citizens, mainly Hispanic, who joined the U.S. military and even fought in some of our wars — only to be deported for various crimes, even after serving their time. These men, many living in Mexico, could sneak back in illegally. But they want to do the right thing, instead applying for legal re-entry. But most are denied. The film never really explains why that is so, however.

Will Those Who Need This Film Even Watch It?

Though a bit disjointed, and relying too heavily on emotion, this film nonetheless does a valuable job of pointing out not only the schizophrenia of American counter-terrorism policy, but more importantly its inherent dangers in light of our government’s bipartisan love of rampant illegal immigration. One Gold Star mother asked “why send our kids to be maimed or killed, if you’re not protecting our borders?” Why indeed? Alas, the only folks who will watch this are probably those who are already asking that question.

Timothy Furnish holds a Ph.D. in Islamic, World and African history from Ohio State University and a M.A. in Theology from Concordia Seminary. He is a former U.S. Army Arabic linguist and, later, civilian consultant to U.S. Special Operations Command. He’s the author of books on the Middle East and Middle-earth, a history professor and sometime media opiner (as, for example, on Fox News Channel’s War Stories: Fighting ISIS). He currently writes for and consults The Stream on International Security matters.