Mexican Diplomat Charged With Helping Smuggle Arabs Into U.S.

Human Events Online ^ | Dec 31, 2003 | Terence P. Jeffrey

[Viking2002]

The real life horror story that began eighteen months ago when an Arab illegal alien named Youseff Balaghi showed up at a San Diego hospital, dying from what the Border Patrol initially—and erroneously—feared was radiation sickness, has now reached high into Mexico's foreign service.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Imelda Ortiz Abdala was Mexico's consul in Lebanon. On Nov. 12, 2003, Mexican authorities arrested her, according to the Associated Press, "on charges of helping a smuggling ring move Arab migrants into the United States from Mexico." The AP said Mexico had also arrested "alleged ring leader Salim Boughader Mucharafille." Boughader earlier pleaded guilty in the U.S. to the smuggling incident that resulted in Balaghi's death.

Unfortunately, this story is not over.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Skerlos prosecuted Boughader. This week, citing Ortiz's arrest, I asked him if there were other rings still bringing Middle Easterners in from Mexico.

"Yes," he said.

Another Front

Far from Iraq, there's another front where the terror war's not over. It's on our own border—and, here, the key enemies are the smugglers who bring people such as Balaghi into California, and who collaborate with allegedly corrupt officials such as Ortiz.

In congressional testimony in 2002, then-Assistant Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Joseph Greene said: "Information available to the INS indicates terrorist organizations often use human smuggling operations to move around the globe." According to a Library of Congress study, "Organized Crime and Terrorist Activity in Mexico, 1999-2002," former Mexican national security adviser Adolfo Aguilar Zinser said in May 2001: "Spanish and Islamic terrorist groups are using Mexico as a refuge."

How is the U.S. countering the threat of terrorists using human smuggling operations and finding refuge in Mexico? Rather than securing our border generally, the government tolerates large-scale illegal immigration, while trying to selectively stop the smuggling operations most likely to move terrorists. The administration, Greene told Congress, has put in place an "enforcement initiative aimed at targeting alien smuggling organizations specializing in the movement of U.S.-bound aliens from countries that are of interest to the national security of the United States."

Balaghi was from Lebanon.

On June 5, 2002, he showed up, vomiting blood, at Scripps Memorial Hospital-Chula Vista. He quickly died. When the Border Patrol heard his symptoms, they feared radiation sickness—and dispatched an agent with a detector to check his remains.

Balaghi was clean. But he was far from the only Middle Easterner Boughader's ring had smuggled.

In an affidavit, Border Patrol Agent John R. Korkin said an investigation "positively identified at least 80 Lebanese nationals that have been, or were intercepted in the process of being, smuggled into the U.S." by the ring. Boughader admitted in court to smuggling more than 100. He was sentenced to one year in prison, and deported to Mexico in November.

Almost immediately, Mexican authorities arrested him in their own anti-smuggling case. A few days later, they arrested Ortiz.

She had worked in Mexico's foreign service for 25 years. From 1998 to October 2001, AP reported, she was Mexico's consul in Lebanon. She later directed the consular office in Mexico City.

She was fired in May, AP said, "after 150 Mexican passports were stolen and two others were found to have been issued irregularly."

Jose Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's assistant attorney general, told Notimex that Boughader's ring moved "a great number of Arabs" into the United States. El Occidental, a Mexican newspaper, said it was "at least 200."

I asked Skerlos to compare that number to the "at least 80 Lebanese nationals" cited in Korkin's affidavit "I think it is fair to say that the numbers we included in our affidavit were conservative," he said.

Almost a month after Ortiz was arrested, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said: "The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some kind of legal status some way, but also as a country decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it."

No, Mr. Secretary. We already have immigration laws. It's your duty to enforce them. If the arrest of a Mexican diplomat for helping to smuggle Arabs into the U.S. can't convince you of the need for that, what will?

[BlessedBeGod]

Mexican Diplomat Charged With Helping Smuggle Arabs Into U.S.

[SandRat]

ILLEAGAL ALIEN PING!

[mylife]

Hey Sandrat, wasnt there an incident in Douglas in 98 with a bunch (100-150) of iranians?

[SandRat]

I remember that a dairy written in Arabic was found on Cong. Kolbe's brother's land near Hereford and Hijinx has a photo of it. There was a bunch of OTMs that came across but I don't recall the specifics.

HJ, JB, care to lend a hand?

[JackelopeBreeder]

Walt Kolbe found a pile of abandoned clothing, backpacks, and trash on his property. When he shook out the backpacks the diary fell out of one of them. There was also a a bunch of phone numbers in Canada and Iran, if I remember correctly. The picture of the diary was snapped by someone from the Sierra Vista Herald before the FBI got it.

The official story was that it was written in Persian/Farsi, but I know a couple of Arabic linguists who say that's baloney.

[mylife]

I recall a story in the SV herald about a rancher that found like 150 arabs on his place in 98 dressed in buisness clothes. BP intecepted them a couple hours later.

I did a search in the herald but cant find the article, maybe its a figment of my magination!

I swear I read it tho! It rattled me.

[JackelopeBreeder]

I remember seeing the article myself, but the Herald's online archive isn't all inclusive. If I remember right it was about 70 Iranians and they were all dressed almost identically in dark trousers, white shirts, and ties. Given the location, they might as well have been dressed in pink tutus.

Their coyotes had gone off scouting the trail and the whole bunch had gotten tired of hiding and were just milling around in the guy's yard. Somebody who saw it said that if they had been wearing hats it would have looked an Amish convention.

[Spiff]

But "border entrants" and "undocumented workers" are just coming here to do the work that evil, racist, lazy white people refuse to do and to make a better life for themselves and their families and to become part of the wonderful immigrant fabric that makes up America. < /sarcasm >

[mylife]

I remember seeing the article myself, but the Herald's online archive isn't all inclusive.

Glad to hear that my mind isn't going. Thanks for the confirmation.

I think there may be a concerted effort to keep us from knowing how bad the situation is with foreigners other than Mexicans on the southern border. I have read reports that several seaports on both sides of the Baja peninsula are bringing in foreigners and coyotes take it from there.

[Happy2BMe]

"Mexican Diplomat Charged With Helping Smuggle Arabs Into U.S."

Give me your huddled masses, your tired, your weak, your illegal aliens,

YOUR TERRORISTS!

[JackelopeBreeder]

If anybody starts singin' Kumbaya, I'm hittin' the abuse button.

[templar]

I think there may be a concerted effort to keep us from knowing how bad the situation is with foreigners other than Mexicans on the southern border.

You can bet on it.

[rundy]

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said: "The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some kind of legal status some way, but also as a country decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it."

Hey Tommy baby, they are called ILLEGAL ALIENS. Hunt them down, ship them out, and smarten up.

[JackelopeBreeder]

I have read reports that several seaports on both sides of the Baja peninsula are bringing in foreigners and coyotes take it from there.

Yep, it's a big lucrative business worth a few billion dollars each year. A lot of it is now run by the drug cartels.

[mylife]

Yep, it's a big lucrative business worth a few billion dollars each year. A lot of it is now run by the drug cartels.

Its just not fair! I couldnt work out a biz flying up fresh seafood from puerto penasco due to laws! Ya know that fresh seafood is dangerous!

[JackelopeBreeder]

Ya know that fresh seafood is dangerous!

Life is full of odd coincidences. You just posted that to a guy who is dangerously allergic to all seafood. ;)

[SandRat]

We all are in agreement that the border has got to be sealed tight. If we can't get the feds we have to force the State's hands to do it by getting a Gov other than Jihad Jane!

Recall! - Recall! - Recall!

[mylife]

Life is full of odd coincidences. You just posted that to a guy who is dangerously allergic to all seafood. ;)


hehehe! I thought it would be a money maker, fresh seafood in the desert. Sorry to hear of your affliction, I could spend a week in rocky point gorging on seafood. ;^)