How Immigration Enforcement Became a National Security Tool

Mark Krikorian; Daniel N. Vara; Jr.

By Mark Krikorian and Daniel N. Vara, Jr. on June 25, 2026

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Summary

The latest episode of the Center for Immigration Studies’ Parsing Immigration Policy podcast features Dan Vara, a veteran of both the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), discussing how immigration enforcement evolved into a critical component of national security, counterterrorism, and criminal investigations and enforcement.

Drawing on more than two decades of service as a lawyer with INS and ICE, Vara, a Center board member, recounts pivotal cases that demonstrated the growing value of immigration authorities in combating drug trafficking, organized crime, espionage, terrorism, and human rights violators. The conversation highlights numerous real-world examples in which immigration authorities proved essential to broader public safety and national security missions, illustrating how the role of immigration enforcement expanded dramatically over the course of Vara’s career.

Through first-hand accounts spanning the Cold War, the drug wars of the 1980s and 1990s, and the post-9/11 era, Vara illustrates how immigration authorities often provided investigative and enforcement tools unavailable to other agencies – making immigration enforcement a true force-multiplier for law enforcement.

Among the topics discussed:

How immigration authorities became integrated into major drug-trafficking and organized crime investigations.
The role immigration law played in dismantling terrorist networks after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The use of immigration enforcement to pursue criminals and national security threats when other charges were unavailable.
The role immigration enforcement played in seizing boats during the Cuban migrant crisis in 1993.
How immigration law became an increasingly important tool in counterintelligence, counterespionage, and national security investigations.
The evolution of INS into ICE following the September 11 attacks.

Commentary from Mark Krikorian, the Center's executive director and podcast host, highlights recent high-profile welfare fraud investigations. While arguing that aggressive enforcement and prosecution are essential, he cautions against allowing headline-grabbing fraud cases to distract policymakers from the larger issue. Lasting reform requires changes to immigration statutes and regulations that reduce overall immigration levels and eliminate the environment that allows fraud to grow.