No. of Iraqis Seeking Asylum at Border Triples

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell told the El Paso Times in an interview following his talk to a Border Security Conference last week that he's worried that terrorist groups, such as the newly regrouping al-Qaida organization, are paying more attention to the Southwest border as a way to enter the United States and cause "mass casualties."

Recently declassified intelligence summaries show that al-Qaida is regrouping in the mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan and is looking for ways to penetrate the United States, McConnell told the Times.

McConnell said terrorists already have been crossing the Southwest border into the United States, but the numbers and other details are classified, the Times reported.

Meanwhile, the Times also reported this morning that McConnell said the number of Iraqis seeking asylum as they entered the United States along the Southwest border has nearly tripled in one year -- and the year isn't even over yet.

Those immigrants entered a country in South America or Central America using forged documents and took advantage of the lack of visa requirements to work their way north from country to country, where they tried to cross into the United States, McConnell told the paper.

One more comment by McConnell (Bush white house man) which shows terrorists have been crossing the southern border since 2001! Remember this the next time someone tells you it’s never happened:

“McConnell said terrorists have been crossing the Southwest border, but the numbers and other details are classified, according to intelligence officials. He points to Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, whose case became public when he was tried in a U.S. court. Kourani, who entered the country through Tijuana, Mexico, in 2001, pleaded guilty to helping Hezbollah raise money in the Detroit suburb where he lived. Hezbollah has been designated by the United States as a terrorist organization.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/rds_archivesearch/ci_6683672

Emphasis:

>>>we caught a 155 thousand people coming across the border from Mexico that weren’t just citizens of Mexico. <<<<

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1864263/posts?page=89#89

Excerpt:

Duncan Hunter: Well, sure. I think we can. And the point is, going back to Mexico is not the end of the world. Mexico is a wonderful country. It has enormous natural resources. We have put billions of dollars into Mexico to give them an economic shot in the arm.

And you know something else, a lot of folks that come to the United States, who are here illegally, have homes in other countries. Now one reason politicians in Mexico City like the open border, is because people come across and send back billions of dollars. The last figure I saw was between 6 – 10 billion dollars a year, of money that they make in the United States to their real homes, in this case in Mexico. But other people come from lots of other countries. In fact in the year 2005 we apprehended, and these are just the folks we caught, we caught a 155 thousand people coming across the border from Mexico that weren’t just citizens of Mexico. They came from virtually every country in the world, including 1100 folks from communist China and a few folks from North Korea and Iran. So the idea that the guy that got smuggled into this country in December because he had an affective smuggler, has the right to have citizenship in the United States, I can’t accept that.

Once again, a whole lot of folks that are here have second homes or have original homes. To make them an American citizen would basically be giving them 2 citizenships. They would be having the citizenship in their original home, where they send their money and they would now have a citizenship in the United States. The problem with giving Amnesty is this, we gave Amnesty in 1986 for 3 million people. And we said that’s it. No one else can come across. The U.S. Senate put up a little stop sign and put it on the border. That stop sign was promptly run over with Goodyear Tires and you had 12 million people stampede for that border after the 1st Amnesty. If we give a second Amnesty, we will have a third wave of people rushing the border of the United States because that is human nature. You will have people coming over expecting the 3rd Amnesty. Just like people came over the 1st Amnesty saying I’ll come in now, 5, 6, 7 years from now they will have another one and I’ll be legalized. Once you abandon the rule of law you are in real trouble. There is nothing wrong with folks going home and then applying for admission back into the United States. Now if they come from a country where people are in danger of being killed if they go back and that happens sometimes. During the days of the Cold War, and before we brought down the Berlin Wall, there were some very dangerous places. There are still a few of them, where people can’t go back and they probably will be killed if they go back. And we give humanitarian exception for those folks. We have done a lot to spread freedom and economic prosperity around this world if they would take it up.

The other thing is, I think the politicians in Mexico City like the open border because it is a pressure release valve for them. If they don’t take care of their people if they don’t provide economic opportunity, and they don’t, than instead of their voters throwing them out of office they want people to vote with their feet and just leave the country. And that is what they do. They vote with their feet and leave the country and come to the United States. I think there is nothing wrong with letting that pressure build up and result in a changed political system that hopefully results in freedom for the people rather than have them vote with their feet and come to the United States and do another Amnesty.

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