[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 890-891]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                COMMENDING A FLORIDA IMMIGRATION OFFICER

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I thank the leaders for giving 
me this time. I want to have the Senate recognize an American citizen 
who, very likely, prevented the entry into the United States of what is 
suspected as the 20th hijacker. I want to tell you this story about 
this immigration officer, who is at the Orlando International Airport. 
His name is Jose Melendez Perez.
  Mr. Melendez, a little more than a month before the attacks on 
September 11, 2001, denied entry into the United States at the Orlando 
Airport of a Saudi national who had arrived at the airport from the 
Middle East by way of London. Federal authorities now believe that this 
man, Mohamed al-Qahtani, was the missing 20th hijacker. He was later 
captured in Afghanistan. He is now being held in Guantanamo Bay, a 
place I have just visited with our four-star general, General Hill, 
just before Christmas to have Christmas dinner with our troops who are 
conducting that operation there.
  This story is quite an interesting story. It is beginning to get a 
flurry of recognition, and that is just recognition for this great 
American. The fact is, he was just doing his job, but he was so expert 
in it that he stopped the entry into the United States of this person. 
He alertly denied al-Qahtani entry into the Orlando Airport based on a 
combination of indicators that suggested he was up to no good. Mr. 
Melendez's experience, training, and instincts served our Nation very 
well.
  It is interesting that what he told me, when I met with him last 
Friday to congratulate him, was that he just got a feeling about this 
guy as he was referred to Mr. Melendez for secondary questioning, since 
he did not speak English. After questioning al-Qahtani and discovering 
many holes in his story--holes about why he was there, how long he was 
going to stay, who was going to meet him--and it is thought, very 
possibly, that it was the hijacker pilot of the first plane that went 
into the World Trade Center who was the guy upstairs to pick him up--
Mohamed Atta. We don't know that for sure. But also there was the fact 
that he didn't have a return ticket or enough cash to purchase one.
  After having that uneasy feeling about none of these answers and a 
very belligerent manner, by the way, by the man being questioned, Mr. 
Melendez put it into his own hands to make the decision that he was 
going to have him arrested, put into detention, and sent back the next 
day on a plane. By refusing al-Qahtani entry into the country, Mr. 
Melendez very well may have helped save many additional lives on 
September 11.
  So this is a proud professionalism in the Immigration Service which 
so

[[Page 891]]

often gets nothing but complaints. I think it is time for us to stand 
up and salute Mr. Melendez and his service. He modestly protested to me 
last Friday that he was only doing his job. But we know because of the 
replicated actions of folks like him being done every day, not only in 
our Border Patrol and other immigration activities, but in the State 
Department and in decisions being made as to whether or not to grant a 
visa in embassies around this country, and with all of our intelligence 
services as they are making these decisions day by day, hour by hour, 
it is working to protect us.
  Mr. Melendez has shown us what correct protection of our borders 
looks like. Now we want to rededicate and congratulate all of the hard-
working colleagues at the Department of Homeland Security. We want to 
provide them with the resources they need to protect our borders and 
the ports of entry. Dedicated security personnel are not there to make 
travel more difficult; they are there to make us safer. Mr. Melendez in 
this instance apparently prevented the compounding of a national 
tragedy on September 11, 2 years ago.
  Mr. President, I thank you for the opportunity that I could recognize 
a wonderful American, an American who spent 27 years in the U.S. Army.
  When Mr. Melendez retired, he decided to continue his Federal 
service, in this case with the Immigration Service. He is a wonderful 
American who has a big family centered in Orlando, with nine 
grandchildren spread over several cities and some back in his native 
Puerto Rico.
  I am very proud today to share his story so our colleagues in the 
Senate might also recognize his brand of modest heroism.
  I thank the Chair.

                          ____________________