Too many people on the liberal side of the fence argue that illegal immigration is a racial issue. They say that those of us who want to protect the US borders are inspired by racism, trying to keep out Latinos. But it’s never been about keeping out Latinos and always about protecting all Americans of all backgrounds. The issue of terrorists and terrorist threats coming into the U.S. via our southern border has been ignored for well over a decade. But those threats haven’t motivated Congress to secure our borders, they forget that it only takes one successful terrorist to execute an attack.
And they are still coming! A November 2018 article by Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies demonstrated that the immigration crisis is NOT just about poor Central and South Americans looking for a better life, it’s also about a bunch of people, with bad intentions, who would love to destroy America. They are already here, and reinforcements are arriving every day.
This prosecution demonstrates the vigilance of the federal government in detecting and disabling individuals who seek to enter the country illegally with the purpose of doing harm. We will continue to be aggressive in protecting our borders and seeking severe punishment for those who violate our laws.
— Western District of Texas U.S. Attorney Robert Pittman, speaking of the sentencing of a Somali al-Shabaab terrorist who crossed the Mexico-Texas border, July 25, 2013.
So what kind of individuals with bad intentions have tried to cross our border and been apprehended? Here is a short list from Bensman’s CIS article:
Abdulahi Sharif, Somalia, detained in Alberta, Canada, September 2017, ISIS: While other extremist border-crossers have been prosecuted for supporting terrorism, asylum fraud, and false statements about terrorism, Sharif allegedly went on to stab a police officer and conduct two vehicle ramming attacks in Edmonton, Alberta, in September 2017. His attack while carrying an ISIS flag injured a police officer and four other people. It soon emerged that some years earlier, in 2011, Sharif smuggled through Latin America and Mexico to the California border.6 After an immigration judge ordered him deported, he made bond and crossed the Canadian border and achieved refugee status. Within 36 months, however, Canada’s federal anti-terrorism police were investigating claims that he held “genocidal beliefs” consistent with extremist ISIS ideology.7
Ibrahim Qoordheen, Somalia, detained in Costa Rica, March 2017, probable al-Shabaab: Costa Rican immigration authorities apprehended Qoordheen after he had passed through Panama en route to the U.S. border.8 In a statement released to the public, Costa Rica’s security ministry announced that U.S. authorities “confirmed that the person is allegedly linked to international terrorist organizations and sought his immediate detention to begin investigating the case.” Qoordheen had been fingerprinted and released when apprehended in Panama and was detained in Costa Rica after U.S. immigration authorities alerted Costa Rican law enforcement that he was en route, strongly suggesting that derogatory intelligence about Qoordheen was already in hand.
Unidentified Afghan national, reported smuggled into the United States, between 2014-2016, Pakistani Taliban: In 2017, federal prosecutors convicted Sharafat Ali Khan, a Pakistani human smuggler based in Brazil, for transporting between 25 and 99 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan from Brazil to Texas and California over the Mexican border. According to the Washington Times, at least one of Khan’s customers was an Afghan “who authorities said was involved in a plot to conduct an attack in the U.S. or Canada and had family ties to members of the Taliban.”9 No secondary corroboration for the report could be found, but it also has not been disputed, retracted, or corrected. The newspaper reported that “documents reviewed by The Times” said the Afghan man was listed on the U.S. No Fly List and in the TSDB for family ties to Taliban terrorists. At an October 2017 sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton did not mention the Afghan, but admonished Khan, “You don’t know whether they’re seeking a better life or whether they’re tying to get in here to engage in terrorism. People could have died, people could have gotten injured, families could have lost loved ones.”10
Muhammad Azeem and Mukhtar Ahmad, Pakistani nationals, Mexico-California border, September 2015, affiliation unknown: U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended Azeem and Ahmad just north of Tijuana after the pair had traveled from their home in Gujrat, Pakistan, through Latin America. Database checks revealed that both migrants were on U.S. terrorism watch lists.11 Two months earlier, Panama had detained and released both migrants to continue their travels north. One of the Pakistanis was listed in the TSDB because of associations with a known or suspected terrorist. The second was a positive match for “derogatory information” in another database, most likely TIDE.12
Unnamed Somali national, detained at the Texas-Mexico border port of entry, June 2014, probable al-Shabaab: This Somali entrant told U.S. immigration officials that two months prior to his border entry to claim asylum he had completed training for a suicide attack in Mogadishu but instead went to African Union troops who were able to thwart the planned terrorist operation. He stated that he had trained with 13 other Somalis for 10 weeks to use suicide belts, AK-47s, and grenades.13 Admitted involvement in any designated terror group is usually grounds for deportation, despite assertions about a change of heart.
Unnamed Sri Lankan national, detained at Texas-Mexico border, March 2012, Tamil Tigers: This Sri Lankan was with two other Sri Lankans apprehended by Border Patrol agents in McAllen, Texas. He stated that he belonged to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. He stated that his group was en route to Canada.14The Tamil Tigers, militarily defeated in 2009, perfected the art of suicide bombing and were reportedly attempting to reconstitute the organization abroad.15
Unnamed Somali national, detained at Mexico-California port of entry, May 2011, probable al-Shabaab: This Somali individual crossed the border at the San Ysidro, Calif., port of entry. He had previously been denied a U.S. immigration visa and was on multiple U.S. terrorism watch lists. His mother, father, and four siblings also were on terrorism watch lists.16
Unnamed Bangladeshi national, detained near Naco, Ariz., June 2010, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh: One of two Bangladeshis apprehended after traveling together and illegally crossing from Mexico admitted to U.S. Border Patrol interviewers that both had worked in the “General Assembly” for the U.S.-designated terrorist group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh. Subsequently, one of two detainees was deported, but the other was granted bond on an asylum claim and absconded.17
Abdullahi Omar Fidse, Somalia, detained at Mexico-Texas Border, June 2008, al-Shabaab: In July 2013, a U.S. District Judge sentenced Fidse on convictions for lying to the FBI about his terrorism associations after he traveled through Latin America to a Mexico-Texas port of entry in 2008.18 An FBI counterterrorism investigation found he had served as an al-Shabaab combat operative, crossed the border intending to conduct an unspecified operation, possessed the cell phone number of a terrorist implicated in the 2010 Uganda bombing that killed 70 soccer fans, and laid out details of a plan to assassinate the U.S. ambassador to Kenya and his Marine guard. He also worked as a weapons procurement operative, once buying an armed vehicle for $100,000 that was blown up in battle, killing all aboard. To a government informant, Fidse discussed the Quranic imperative to “terrorize the infidels” and stated, “We are terrorists.”19 He admired Osama bin Ladin, demanded vengeance on infidels for the U.S. Hellfire missile killing of a senior al-Shabaab leader, and believed all good Muslims must commit two acts of jihad a year. Fidse’s terrorism involvement was uncovered after an FBI informant inside a Texas detention facility began recording him discussing it.20 U.S. Attorney Robert Pittman said after sentencing: “This prosecution demonstrates the vigilance of the federal government in detecting and disabling individuals who seek to enter the country illegally with the purpose of doing harm.”
Mohammad Ahmad Dhakane, Somalia, detained at Mexico-Texas border port of entry, October 2008, al-Ittihad al-Islamiya In 2010, Dhakane was convicted at trial in San Antonio, Texas, on asylum fraud charges derived from an FBI terrorism investigation, which began when he was recorded speaking about his work as a terrorist to an undercover informant inside a Texas detention facility. Dhakane had worked as a Brazil-based smuggler of fellow Somalis to the U.S. border before he decided to cross himself and declare asylum. It quickly emerged that Dhakane had belonged to the U.S.-designated terrorist group al-Ittihad al-Islamiya (AIAI) as a guerilla fighter and finance official.21 He served for six years as a “hawaladar”, or transferor of funds outside the normal banking system, for al-Barakat, an organization the Treasury Department designated as a banned terrorist entity.22 While working as a smuggler in South America, Dhakane facilitated the transportation of as many as seven Somali men across the Texas and California borders whom he knew, from long personal discussions in hotel rooms along the way, were extremist affiliates of AIAI who he knew were “ready to die for the cause”.
Farida Goolam Ahmed, Pakistani national, illegally crossed the Mexico-Texas border, July 2004, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Ahmed’s apprehension at the McAllen, Texas, airport while carrying clothing still wet from crossing the Rio Grande and a passport mutilated to hide her airport arrival in Mexico City drew brief national media attention as a potential terrorist infiltration, which faded after official government declarations that she was not connected to terrorism.23 However, a December 9, 2004, U.S. Border and Transportation Security intelligence summary of the case stated that Ahmed was “linked to specific terrorist activities.”24 MQM is a Pakistan political movement and party that has been involved in terroristic political violence and has been regarded by the U.S. government as a “Tier III” terrorist organization.25 Court transcripts and government investigative materials identified Ahmed as a South Africa-based human smuggler for MQM who sources said operated an MQM safe house in Johannesburg that provided shelter for terrorists “on the run”, to include a participant in a 1995 ambush murder of two U.S. consulate employees in Karachi, Pakistan.26 An FBI official with direct knowledge of the investigation said Ahmed’s husband was a confirmed member of a terrorist organization.27
She regularly transported Pakistanis and others associated with MQM over the U.S.-Mexico border and also into Canada and Australia. Houston-based federal prosecutor Abe Martinez, chief of the Southern District of Texas national security section in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, was asked if she or anyone she smuggled might have been involved in terrorism. “Were they linked to any terrorism organizations? I would have to say yes.”28 An uncorroborated Homeland Security Today magazine report cited U.S. intelligence sources alleging that Ahmed was linked to Pakistanis arrested in the United Kingdom who were plotting a terror attack in New York.29 Ahmed pleaded guilty to illegal entry and false statements and was deported with time served.30
Muhammad Kourani, Lebanese national, illegally crossed Mexico-U.S. border, date unknown (sometime before 2003), Hezbollah Court records from a current prosecution of a New York City-based member of Hezbollah’s foreign terrorist wing known as “Unit 910” revealed that the defendant’s father, Muhammad Kourani, had “entered the United States illegally on foot.”31 “U.S. prosecutors accuse the son, Ali Kourani, in a multi-count indictment of collecting intelligence for potential assassinations and bombings in the United States for Unit 910 from 2008 through at least 2015.32
Court records from his son’s New York prosecution describe Mohammed Kourani as having intimate knowledge of and participation in his son’s communications with a Hezbollah overseer inside Lebanon and also that the father knew two other sons were Hezbollah members and that at least one unrelated man in the New York area was a Hezbollah intelligence operative.33 After Muhammad Kourani illegally entered the United States from Mexico, he fraudulently married a woman to gain legal residency. The date of the illegal entry is not provided. He then sought immigration relief for his son, the defendant Ali Kourani, and also one other of his sons, Moustafa Kourani, based on the purported marriage. Court records from the case show at least three of Muhammad Kourani’s sons were Hezbollah operatives.34 Ultimately, the U.S. defendant, Ali Kourani, legally immigrated from Cyprus to the United States in 2003. It was unclear whether his father was involved in that immigration, but the dates indicate that Muhammad Kourani would likely have crossed from Mexico prior to 2003. The other son and defendant’s brother, Moustafa Kourani, whom their father also helped enter the United States was, in 2017, undergoing deportation proceedings while also under FBI investigation as a suspected Hezbollah operative.
Al-Manar Television employee, Lebanese national, smuggled over Mexico-California border, 2001 or 2002, Hezbollah Out of the 2003-2004 U.S. smuggling prosecution of Lebanese national Salim Boughader Mucharrafille came information that his Tijuana-based organization smuggled one client over the Mexico-California who worked for a Hezbollah-owned satellite television network.35 The U.S. government designated Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated its satellite television operation as a terrorist entity in part because employees have been known to conduct pre-operational surveillance for Hezbollah “under cover of employment by Al-Manar”, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.36 The station was added to the U.S. State Department’s Terrorist Exclusion List in 2004.37
Mahmoud Kourani, Lebanese national, illegally crossed Mexico-California border, February 2001, Hezbollah In 2001, Kourani (no known family relation to other listed individuals in this report) was smuggled across the Mexican border and into the United States in the trunk of a car and settled in Dearborn, Mich.38 In 2005, Kourani was sentenced to 54 months in prison for his activities as a “fighter, recruiter and fund-raiser” for Hezbollah, operating in Lebanon and in the United States.39 Court records said Kourani had received “specialized training in radical Shiite fundamentalism, weaponry, spy craft and counterintelligence in Lebanon and Iran.” Prosecutors said his brother, Haidar, was chief of military security for the group in southern Lebanon. The government said Kourani paid a Mexican consular official in Beirut $3,000 for a visa to enter Mexico, then sneaked across the border.40 He was smuggled by the Salim Boughader Mucharrafille network of Lebanon, along with at least 200 Lebanese the network moved over the border from Tijuana, to include an Al-Manar Television employee.41
These 14 individuals were, thankfully, apprehended. Who knows how many more may have slipped through.
Check out this little nugget from Politifact:
Along with human traffickers, drug-cartel and gang members, law enforcement personnel in recent years had several run-ins with so-called “special interest aliens.” These are people coming into the United States from 35 Middle Eastern, African and Asian countries associated with terrorist groups.
Texas reported 439 cases of people from these countries — including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan and Syria — either caught crossing the border or presenting themselves at ports of entry without permission to enter. The report also said authorities had reported 143 “land border crossing encounters with watch-listed individuals in southwest border states between November 2013 and July 2014.”
439 attempted entries in less than a year and 143 of them were officially watchlisted. Do you think the other 296 were just good people looking for a new life? Maybe some, but definitely not all. Let’s just go with the 143 number. Let that soak in for a moment. And remember, these were simply those who hadn’t found a way to get permission to enter and does not include those who were never caught. But in the end, it doesn’t matter how many…because it only takes ONE
Here is an excellent synopsis of what is happening right now from a former Obama classmate, Wayne Allen Root, via The Blaze:
We’ve lost control of our border and our country. What’s coming next will bring America and the U.S. economy to its knees.
At this moment there may be hundreds of suicide bombers and terrorist cells safely within our borders. All waiting for the go-ahead to destroy this country, cripple our economy, murder our families, take down the only country left in the world with Judeo-Christian values, and force the government to take away our remaining freedoms in response to a terrible crisis.
It’s time to start thinking about impeachment and treason charges against a president that has allowed all of this to happen.
This is all part of a purposeful plan to overwhelm the system that Obama and I studied at Columbia University. Yes, I was Obama’s college classmate at Columbia University, Class of 1983. This is right out of the playbooks of Cloward-Piven and Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
Root’s article was written while Obama was still in office, but the problem has not changed and possibly worsened. Bad people are entering this country, both legally and ILLEGALLY every day. They seek to destroy us. This doesn’t even include the drug cartel members that have moved in.
There is no way to know how many terrorists have made it here. But if they have caught hundreds trying to enter, I don’t think it is unrealistic to suspect that thousands are already here AND they are reproducing.
BUILD THE DAMN WALL!
America, as we know it, can not survive without it.
Cross-posted with DC Dirty Laundry
