We are seeing an increase of 137 percent in immigrants who are from countries other than Mexico. These immigrants, which are called OTMs, "other than Mexicans," are coming into our country in the largest numbers we have ever seen. But due to a lack of resources, they are often caught and released, or they are not caught at all.Recognizing our serious border vulnerability, Congress passed the intelligence reform bill last year and authorized an increase of 10,000 Border Patrol agents over 5 years. It included provisions to add 8,000 detention beds and 800 additional interior investigators. Unfortunately, the budget before us only allocated enough to cover 210 agents, 143 investigators, and 1,920 beds for detention.
The Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently said:
We do not have enough agents; we don't have enough technology to give us the security we need.
Let me give you some examples of recent happenings.
In Detroit, Mahmoud Youssef Kourani was indicted in the Eastern District of Michigan on one count of conspiracy to provide material support to Hezbollah. Kourani was already in custody for entering the country illegally through Mexico and was involved in fundraising activities on behalf of Hezbollah.The two groups of Arab males were discovered by patrol guards from Willcox, AZ. One field agent said:
These guys didn't speak Spanish, and they were speaking to each other in Arabic. It's ridiculous that we don't take this more seriously. We're told not to say a thing to the media.
This is a field agent for the Border Patrol.
* * * When I first came to Congress, we doubled our Border Patrol agents from 3,000 to 6,000. We were a country that was porous, both on the borders of Canada and Mexico. But, clearly, we have had more and more influx of illegal aliens that have become a burden in many parts of our country, and now we have a security threat from people who do not live on our borders but are using our borders as a conduit to come into our country. The examples that Senator Ensign and I have just mentioned, where we are finding Muslim prayer rugs and instructions in Arabic on how to cross the border of the Rio Grande River, are just wake-up calls that we cannot avoid. So we are, hopefully, going to have the support of Congress to add a full 2,000 Border Patrol agents.But as important as it is to catch these people, we also need to be able to detain them. Today, many times, because we have no detention facilities, we will say to the people: You must promise to come back in 60 days for your hearing on illegally entering this country.
Well, guess how many come back. Ten percent come back for their hearing. What happened to the other 90 percent? We are finding them in places such as Vermont, New York, and Detroit, MI. That is what happened to them.
Men claim to be Christians who are persecuted
By Associated Press
May 6, 2006
BROWNSVILLE - Three Iraqi men who say they are persecuted Christians and are seeking asylum were sentenced Friday to the maximum six months in prison after being caught sneaking into Texas.Border Patrol agents arrested Ammar Habib Zaya, Aamr Bahnan Boles and Remon Manssor Piuz on April 29 near the Los Indios international bridge near Harlingen, federal court records show.
The men, ranging in age from 20 to 25, pleaded guilty Monday to illegal entry, crossing the border from Mexico.
[snip]
New Crisis At U.S. Southern Border
HOUSTON, July 26, 2005
...According to the Border Patrol, some 465,000 OTMs have taken advantage of this "catch and release" policy to settle here in the U.S. "It's an insane policy which encourages OTMs to come into the country illegally, and we shouldn't be shocked that they are coming in record numbers," says T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents more than 9,000 agents. In fact, he says, after crossing the border, many OTMs flag down agents or walk up to them and surrender, knowing they will be released. "The word is out," says Mr. Bonner. "They know that as soon as they are caught, they will be free to roam at will."It only took 19 to kill over 3,000 innocents.* * * "We should be greatly concerned because OTMs do not register, their travel documents are suspect, and they have no biometric records that can be checked to verify identity," remarked the appropriations subcommittee's chairman, Harold Rogers (R) of Kentucky.
Most are from Brazil and Central America, but Mr. Aguilar reported that last year 644 came from "countries of concern."
What's most disturbing, say immigration experts, is that the increase in OTM apprehensions comes on the heels of the U.S. war on terror.
Guantanamo Detainee Caught At The Border
Thomas Joscelyn
Posted on 04/27/2006 4:42:16 PM EDT by hipaatwo
...There is a lot of interesting information in those documents, including the allegations against one detainee who was caught while trying to sneak across the Mexican border.(Excerpt) Read more at http://thomasjoscelyn.blogspot.com/2006/04/guantanamo-detainee-caught-at-border.htmlThe name of the detainee was not given in the original two-page transcript I reviewed. Just recently the Pentagon released the names of hundreds of Guantanamo's inmates, but I haven't been able to match one of those names to this suspect, yet.
The U.S. government alleges that the detainee "attempted to be smuggled into the United States" and "traveled with forged travel documents, including a passport and other travel documents." The detainee admits that he was caught while attempting to illegally enter the U.S., but claims that he "was going to find a job to make some money."
* * * .....it is disturbing to learn that the government has found a smuggling network associated with two prominent terrorist groups just south of our border. The allegations against this detainee also raise interesting questions concerning what, exactly, Hezbollah and the IG are planning.
COMING TO AMERICA Arabic diary found near border
Couple discovers book in backpack dropped on their property Posted: February 13, 2003
An Arizona couple has discovered a diary written in Arabic in a backpack apparently dropped on their property by an illegal alien entering the U.S., reports the Sierra Vista Herald Review....Resident Finds Backpack w/Arabic Notebook (short Title)
Hereford, AZ -- It is not unusual to find backpacks near their home, but a local man and his wife were surprised to find one that contained a diary written in Arabic.....TERRORISTS DON'T STOP AT THE RIO GRANDE
Ok, all you open-borders Pollyannas on both the left and right. Here is yet another example of terrorists traipsing across our southern border that you will no doubt ignore.Meet Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed. Federal News Radio reports:
She was stopped at McAllen Miller International Airport on July 19 headed to New York.
Eddie Flores of the U.S. Border Patrol office in McAllen, Texas tells FederalNewsRadio.com that a review of her papers raised some concerns.
"In looking at her documents, they did not find any entry documents in her passport where she was legally admitted into the United States," says Flores.
Ahmed produced a South African passport to the agents with four pages torn out, and with no U.S. entry stamps. Ahmed reportedly later confessed to investigators that she entered the country illegally by crossing the Rio Grande River. Ahmed was carrying travel itineraries showing a July 8 flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to London. Six days later, Ahmed traveled from London to Mexico City before attempting to travel from McAllen to New York.
* * *
The Tombstone Tumbleweed reports "that a flood of middle-eastern males have been caught entering the country illegally east of Douglas, Arizona. The increased patrols in the Huachuca Mountains area of Cochise County, seems to have diverted the flow of OTM's, "other than Mexicans" east to the Chiricahua Mountains." While a Border Patrol information officer publicly denied the reports, another agent told the publication that "the men were suspected to be Iranian or possibly Syrian nationals."
"Other than Mexicans"
By Chris Kelly · May 23, 2005 07:16 PM
...there are uncorroborated law enforcement reports suggesting that associates of al Qaeda used smugglers in Latin America to travel through the region in 2002 before traveling onward to the United States...Other Than Mexicans...One smuggler, Salim Boughader-Mucharrafille, smuggled Lebanese nationals sympathetic to Hamas and Hizbollah into the United States and relied on corrupt Mexican officials in Beirut, Mexico City and Tijuana to facilitate their travel...
PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 2, 2004
Are terrorists entering the United States through Arizona's border with Mexico?...
It's been a summer of media whispers that keep getting louder.Arab terrorists 'are getting into the US over Mexican border'· In early August, the Washington Times reported that al-Qaeda is allying with Mexican organized crime groups to infiltrate the United States via Mexico.
· In late July, ABC News reported that the Border Patrol had arrested a woman named Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed. The arrest was made at McAllen-Miller airport in South Texas, where Ahmed was attempting to board a flight to New York. She acknowledged that smugglers brought her across the Rio Grande from Mexico; the FBI declared Ahmed a "person of interest."
· Congressman Solomon Ortiz, ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, was quoted in the Brownsville Herald as saying that Mexicans with possible terrorist ties have been detained after entering the country from Mexico, but are being released for lack of jail space. "It's very, very scary," said Ortiz.
· On Los Angeles radio station KFI AM's John and Ken Show, Congressman John Culberson, a Texas Republican, said federal prosecutors had told him that Middle Eastern men with al-Qaeda links are adopting Hispanic names, acquiring fake Mexican ID cards and mixing with the stream of illegals coming across our southern border. They're choosing this route, he said, because the screening process for incoming airline passengers is increasingly effective.
· The Chicago Tribune recently reported on the arrest of Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, a Tijuana, Mexico café owner, on charges of smuggling Arabs into this country. The Tribune wrote that the case set off alarm bells among U.S. security officials, because it illustrated the vulnerability of the U.S.-Mexico border.
· Two Arab men, Ali Safia and Can Azif--whose names scored hits on U.S. watch lists--arrived in Mexico City in the winter of 2003 on one-way tickets from Europe, reported the Dallas Morning News. While in Europe, they also had purchased one-way tickets for a flight from the western Mexican city of Culiacan to Los Angeles. The pair failed to show up for the flight and have not been seen since, the paper said.
· In mid-August, the Arizona Daily Star reported that officials had issued an alert for al-Qaeda cell leader Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, who they thought might cross from Mexico into the United States through Arizona or Texas. Two days later, the alert was jerked back. Maybe he's not coming after all, but Shukrijumah is still missing. A reward of up to $5 million is out for his capture.
Over the past month, border agents from Arizona and Texas have anonymously reported recent encounters with dozens of Arab men, who have made their way across the 2,000-mile Mexican border.Investigators: Terrorist AlleyPatrol agents told one Arizona newspaper that 77 males "of Middle Eastern descent" were apprehended in June in two separate incidents. All were trekking through the Chiricahua mountains and are believed to have been part of a larger group of illegal immigrants. Many were released pending immigration hearings. According to Solomon Ortiz, the Congressman for Corpus Christi in Texas, similar incidents are "happening all over the place. It's very, very scary".
In August, The Investigators on Eyewitness News 4 first reported the possible threat of terrorists crossing the Arizona/Mexico border into the U.S. Now, we've uncovered more evidence the threat along our border is real.Al Qaeda-Linked Middle Eastern Men Infiltrating Via Southern Border, Using Fake Mexican ID, NamesIllegals from terrorist nations are crossing the border into Arizona.
Tom McNamara and the Eyewitness News 4 Investigators have spent the last three months talking to experts and eyewitnesses.
The stories are compelling and the evidence is frightening, and just this week, Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo released a report showing that the problem is worse than anyone thought.
Here's what the Eyewitness News 4 Investigators uncovered.
"It's a Muslim prayer blanket. It was found about a mile and a half west from the Douglas port of entry in 2001."...
Posted on 07/16/2004 5:51:28 PM PDT by John Jorsett
Congressman John Culberson (R - TX), speaking on the John and Ken show in Los Angeles, tells the hosts that he's now authorized, for the first time anywhere, to disclose that Middle Eastern men with Al Qaeda links have been mixing with the stream of illegal aliens coming in via the Southern US border. Having changed their names from Islamic to Hispanic ones, and having obtained authentic Mexican Matricula Consular ID cards using faked Mexican birth certificates, the men are paying up to $30,000 to obtain entry into the US among the flow of Hispanic illegal aliens crossing....Border Security: Apprehensions of "Other Than Mexican"Aliens [PDF FILE]
"According to a Border Patrol spokesman from the Del Rio Sector, 'word is out that we are unable to detain the other than Mexican crossers, and they are exploiting a bottleneck in the system.'"
* * * Over the past three years, OTM apprehensions have more than tripled nationwide and have been concentrated along the South Texas border. The reasons for this dramatic increase, and its geographical concentration in Texas, are not altogether clear. [only to idyots.]
ping to my post #572 regarding numerous articles over the past couple of years regarding "OTM's" (Other than Mexicans) crossing our southern border.