Report: 30k Illegal Immigrants Came From Countries of Terrorist Concern By Tyler O’Neil
https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/2016/08/22/report-30k-illegal-immigrants-came-from-countries-of-terrorist-concern/
In 2015 alone, over 30,000 illegal immigrants from “countries of terrorist concern” entered the United States through the southwestern border with Mexico, Department of Defense Southern Command (Southcom) spokeswoman Army Col. Lisa A. Garcia told the Washington Free Beacon on Monday.
“Networks that specialize in smuggling individuals from regions of terrorist concern, mainly from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, the Middle East, and East Africa, are indeed a concern for Southcom and other interagency security partners who support our country’s national security,” Garcia said. “There are major hubs that serve as entry points into the region for migrants from those areas of concern attempting to enter the U.S. along our border with Mexico.”
Garcia reported that in 2015 alone, “we saw a total of 331,000 migrants enter the southwestern border between the U.S. and Mexico, of that we estimate more than 30,000 of these were from countries of terrorist concern.”
She explained a new Southcom report found that Sunni extremists are infiltrating the United States with the help of alien smugglers in South America and are crossing the border with ease.
While many American security officials and private security experts have dismissed the idea that terrorists exploit alien smuggling networks as a myth, the report revealed terrifying evidence that Islamist infiltration may already have occurred.
“This makes the case for Trump’s wall,” a security official noted in the report. “These guys are doing whatever they want to get in the country.”
The Washington Free Beacon’s Bill Gertz also quoted Southcom commander Adm. Kurt Tidd, who warned that a lack of information is hampering security efforts against alien smuggling. “Our ability to track people moving through transportation systems is an area that we must continue to devote efforts on, and the ease with which human traffickers are able to use our transportation systems to move people through the networks relatively undetected should give us all concern.”
The threat does not come from new relationships between Sunni extremists and alien smugglers, but from increased use of already existing networks, explained Joel Vargas, head of Continent Security Services and a consultant to law enforcement agencies. In an email statement, he warned that “existing smuggling networks from Central America are increasing their access.”
“Our Sunni illegal migration coming from [Latin America] is very small,” Vargas admitted. But “on the other hand, they can use the networks set up by the Shia.” He reported that law enforcement agencies have intercepted immigrants coming from Asia but have not been able to determine if they are extremists.
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