Patterico's Pontifications

9/13/2007

Straight Talk about Border Security

Filed under: Immigration,Terrorism — DRJ @ 11:57 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

Texas’ top homeland security official, Steve McCraw, affirmed that terrorists have been arrested in Texas after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border. McCraw named one terrorist — Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed — who had waded across the Rio Grande, was arrested in July 2004 at the McAllen airport with “$7,300 in various currencies and a South African passport with pages missing,” and had “ties to an insurgent group in Pakistan and whose specialty was smuggling Afghanis and other foreign nationals across the border.”

In addition, McCraw provided numbers for people from terrorist-related countries who have entered illegally: 347 people from what he called “terrorism-related countries” have been arrested crossing the border in Texas. He said a porous border “without question” was a national security risk.

Without question, and read the whole thing.

— DRJ

11 Responses to “Straight Talk about Border Security”

  1. She was sentenced to time served and deported to South Africa.

    Comforting. Oh, and “no terrorist ties” in the “lengthy affidavit”:

    Because immigration facilities along the border are often full, many non-Mexican immigrants are released on their own recognizance and ordered to appear before an immigration judge at a later time, immigration officials acknowledge.

    ”My concern is this (Ahmed) is one of the ones who have been caught, but how many have gone through?” U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi said.

    Ortiz said federal officials, who he would not identify, have told him that migrants from Middle Eastern countries have been released by the Border Patrol because of a lack of space at detention facilities.

    ”My question was, ‘Have some of these people (those released) been coming from Middle Eastern countries?’ And the answer was ‘Yes.’ Who are they, we don’t know. Have they checked them out? I don’t believe so,” Ortiz said.

    Eddie Flores, public information officer for the Border Patrol’s McAllen Sector said that since last October [2003], a total of 19,460 undocumented migrants from countries other than Mexico have been apprehended.

    But the federal complaint, and a lengthy affidavit supporting the charges, does not accuse Ahmed of terror acts or terrorist ties.

    [Houston Chronicle, 07/09/2004]

    http://search.chron.com/chronicle/archiveSearch.do;jsessionid=C5BDF6FACF94C1F5335B079A89F02939

    steve (dcbd1e)

  2. I wonder what would happen if a rapist or a murderer was released for lack of detention facilities? Why not set up POW cages with tents?

    This is a joke.

    Thomas Jackson (bf83e0)

  3. Well, I suppose domestic terrorism is one of those jobs that Americans are unwilling to do.

    JVW (6a3590)

  4. re: #3 – Apparently, so is border control. Very disturbing story.

    TimesDisliker (562e84)

  5. Well, a terrorist certainly was arrested legally crossing from Canada to the US, and only by a stroke of luck was LAX not bombed at the millennium.

    What does this mean about the US-Canadian border? About as much as McCraw’s comments about terrorists coming from Mexico. Is sneaking in from Canada somehow harder?

    And let’s not forget that all the 9/11 hijackers entered legally. What makes you think that giving more money for DHS to spend will make anyone any safer? Seems to me like we’ll just keep on getting what we’re getting.

    Not sure what the solution to the illegal alien problem is, but more border patrol won’t solve the terrorist entry problem. Red herring.

    Kevin Murphy (0b2493)

  6. Kevin, it sounds like you are saying not all terrorists sneak over the border, therefore a policy of doing something about people who sneak over the border will have no effect on terrorism. If that’s not what you mean, what do you mean? And if it is what you mean … huh?

    Xrlq (6c2116)

  7. […] tip to Patterico’s DRJ for the McCraw […]

    Hot Air » Blog Archive » Myths about Myths on Terrorism (d4224a)

  8. Security is about raising the lowest barrier, then the next lowest, and so on.

    Right now the Mexican border is the lowest fence. We get more front-end screening of immigrants INTO Canada before they can attempt crossing the US-Canada border, so security there is, on net, better.

    You fix the worst problems first. Trying to fix all of them at once results in paralysis.

    Dan S (c77713)

  9. How many terrorists are crossing the border already?

    krazy kagu (1b5cd8)

  10. Web Reconnaissance for 09/14/2007…

    A short recon of whatÂ’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often….

    The Thunder Run (59ce3a)

  11. No, xrlq, I’m saying don’t try to hang this on the illegal immigration hook. Hook’s full.

    Kevin Murphy (0b2493)


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