(NaturalNews) While the political Left and the Old Media readily accept the Obama administration’s claims that the president’s lax immigration enforcement policies are not conducive to infiltration by terrorists, most Americans who can think critically always knew otherwise. That’s why it was little surprise to them when Border Patrol officials announced in September they had caught two terrorist suspects from Pakistan attempting to enter the nation via the lengthy, under-protected Southwest border.
As reported by the Washington Times, the men – Muhammad Azeem and Mukhtar Ahmad, both in their 20s and from Gujrat – were caught Sept. 20 by agents south of San Diego after they had just crossed over the international border from Tijuana. After checking their identities through government databases, agents got hits on both of them: Ahmad’s ID came back as an associate of a known or suspected terrorist; Azeem’s information was shared with the U.S. by a foreign government for intelligence purposes, the Times reported. Both of the suspects were processed about two months earlier by immigration officials in Panama, which means they likely made it to the U.S. via known smuggling networks and routes commonly used by illegal immigrants from Central America, officials said, according to the Times.
It was just the latest incident of illegal immigrants being caught attempting to enter the U.S. from “special interest countries” via the southern border, and it comes as U.S. lawmakers are increasingly voicing concern that the president’s reduced efforts at interdicting illegal aliens at the nation’s borders with Mexico are being taking advantage of more often by potential terrorists.
Trump wants to build a wall
“The southern land border remains vulnerable to intrusion and exists as a point of extreme vulnerability,” Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson recently. Hunter was seeking information about how many people in the FBI’s terrorism screening database have been caught at the border [the Border Patrol falls under the purview of DHS].
“Evidently there are criminal organizations and individuals with the networks and know-how to facilitate illegal entry into the United States without regard for one’s intentions or status on a terrorist watch list,” said Hunter in his letter, as quoted by the Times. “The detention of the two Pakistani nationals underscores the fact that any serious effort to secure our homeland must include effective border security and immigration enforcement.”
FBI officials provided no comment to the Times. FBI agents were brought in to interview the two men but the agency otherwise had “no information to provide.”
The Border Patrol turned the two terror suspects over the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The Times said that agency told reporters the two men have been in U.S. custody since September and are being detained as immigration proceedings continue. They will likely be deported.
Still, similar incidents have raised hackles within government circles, generating additional questions about how terrorists may be attempting to take advantage of Obama administration policies that have encouraged mass migration, using established smuggling rings in Latin America.
Additional cases
The Times noted further:
A year before the two Pakistani men were caught, the Border Patrol apprehended four Kurdish men who said they were part of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front/Party, which is listed by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. Mr. Johnson, the Homeland Security secretary, said the four were actually members of the Kurdish Workers’ Party, which is also listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
The Times reported in 2014 that the four men each paid $8,000 to be smuggled from Istanbul, Turkey, through Paris to Mexico City, where they were then sheltered by a smuggling network before being taken to the U.S. border. That case “highlighted the existence of smuggling networks capable of getting terrorists from the Middle East to the U.S. Border,” the Times reported.
Twisted.news reported that two Middle Eastern men have been arrested – one in California and one in Texas – earlier this month on suspicion of conspiracy to commit terrorism.
“Omar Faraj Saeed Al-Hardan, 24, was arrested in Houston, while Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, 23, was apprehended in Sacramento. Both men are described as Iraqi-born Palestinians who entered the U.S. as refugees,” the site reported.
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