Bomb Suspect's Citizenship Raises Questions About FOXNews
The suspect in the Times Square car bombing attempt is the latest in a series of U.S. citizens and green card holders to be implicated in a terror plot inside the United States, raising questions about the naturalization process that turns foreigners into Americans.
Several hurdles are in place for immigrants to attain U.S. citizenship and, in turn, its platinum-status passport. Pakistani-born suspect Faisal Shahzad passed through his security checks and became a U.S. citizen in April 2009. He first entered the United States on a student visa in the late 1990s, was granted a special work visa a few years later and obtained a green card in 2006 after his wife, an apparent U.S. citizen, petitioned on his behalf.
An official with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said "it's too early" to say whether any signs were missed in Shahzad's naturalization process. But the official acknowledged that any screening is just "a snapshot in time" and can't catch everything.