Patriotism wasn’t derided back then, and the idea that the country needed to step up efforts to keep its citizens safe was paramount.
America has changed a lot since terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon 24 years ago today, and not always for the better.
There was a strong sense of a truly united United States in the first days and weeks after the terrorist attacks. Remember the lines of people around the country queuing up to donate blood, before the grim realization that there would be no large-scale rescues from the smoking rubble in New York?
Patriotism wasn’t derided back then, and the idea that the country needed to step up efforts to keep its citizens safe was paramount.
At least five of the 9/11 hijackers were discovered to have overstayed their visas in the U.S. Closing the “visa loophole” was a key recommendation by the 9/11 Commission.
The security implications of lax illegal immigration measures was a shared worry.
As NBC News reported in 2006, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., conferred with border officials after the discovery of an underground tunnel crossing the U.
