Fox Pulse: Terrorists being smuggled in from Mexico

Fox News via American Patrol Report ^ | July 11, 2002 | Geraldo Rivera

[spycatcher]

If you missed the new Fox Pulse newsmagazine's 9-month exclusive investigation, here's a streaming audio link...

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It's estimated that 500,000 of unknown national origin have crossed over the border with Mexico since 9-11-01.

And from the following article some agents estimate 10% are now from he Middle East..

'Arab terrorists' crossing border: Middle Eastern illegals find easy entrance into U.S. from Mexico

And here's a related article from a few months back

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Iraqi reportedly smuggled hundreds from Middle East across Mexican border

New York Times News Service
Oct. 25, 2001 10:05:00

EL PASO - An Iraqi-born smuggler led hundreds of illegal immigrants from the Middle East across the Mexican border into the United States in the 1990s, prosecution documents filed in a federal conspiracy trial here say.

The Iraqi, George Tajirian, who forged an alliance with a Mexican immigration officer, smuggled Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian, Iraqi, Yemeni and other undocumented immigrants through Mexico and into the United States, sending them to wade across the Rio Grande or pass border checkpoints with counterfeit travel documents from Greece, Mexico and other nations, the prosecutors said.

Tajirian appears to have had no political or other agenda, and prosecutors have provided no evidence that any of the people smuggled by him had terrorist ties. But prosecutors said he had paid little heed to whether his clients were criminals, merely raising his smuggling fees when he became aware of such complications.

The record of prosecution proceedings against Tajirian and Angel Molina Paramo, the Mexican official who prosecutors say was a major confederate, suggest that the Mexican border has been a thoroughfare for hundreds of Middle Eastern migrants crossing illegally into the United States.

Tajirian, who is a naturalized Mexican citizen, was arrested in Miami in 1998, pleaded guilty to smuggling undocumented foreigners in a plea agreement that erased conspiracy and other charges, and is serving a 13-year sentence. Molina was extradited to Texas this spring. A federal judge here accepted his guilty plea last week, also the result of a plea bargain, and sentencing is set for next month. Tajirian's wife, who is a Mexican citizen, and a fourth suspect, a Lebanese woman who ran Tajirian's travel agency in Quito, Ecuador, are fugitives.

The documents pertaining to Tajirian's smuggling operations were presented to the court as part of the case against Molina and the two fugitives. Among the documents was one in which prosecutors said they collected evidence on 132 illegal immigrants Tajirian smuggled into the United States from 1996 through 1998.

The prosecutors estimated that since he began to build his smuggling organization in 1980 he had led more than 1,000 Middle East natives across the southwest frontier.

Tajirian showed "no scruples" in deciding whom he would smuggle into the United States, Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Brandy Gardes wrote in a brief before Tajirian's sentencing in 1998. One citizen of Yemen whom Tajirian brought to the U.S. in December 1997 was wanted for genocide in South Yemen, the prosecutors said. Tajirian, the prosecutors said, was aware of this and, accordingly, raised his fee. A Syrian native who was smuggled across the frontier in September 1996 had a criminal record in Germany.

"The tightening of our borders and our internal security," Gardes wrote, "is a priority and the desire of the American public. The defendant's criminal activity, through its sheer magnitude and cavalier attitude, struck deeply at these goals."

In documents presented to the court, prosecutors said Tajirian routinely charged clients $10,000 to $15,000 or more. They documented earnings of $230,000 from 1996 through 1998, and estimated that he grossed as much as $2 million during that period. Prosecutors say Tajirian is 60 years old. He says he is 70.

Statistics gathered by the Immigration and Naturalization Service suggest that citizens from countries with majority Islamic populations seek to gain entry to the United States illegally much more frequently at the Canadian border. Last year, American agents detained 254 undocumented immigrants, from 16 Middle Eastern countries, Sudan, Pakistan and Malaysia, at Canadian border checkpoints, according to the INS statistics.

By contrast, at the Mexican border, agents detained 90 undocumented immigrants last year from countries with majority Islamic populations: Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Pakistan. The Mideast migrants were moving in a human tide that was overwhelmingly Latin. Some 99.9 percent of the 1.64 million undocumented immigrants detained at the southwest border last year were from Mexico and 16 other Latin countries.

The documents presented here detail more than any other case the nature of the smuggling pipeline by which illegal Middle Eastern immigrants cross the Southwestern border.

Tajirian, who was born in Baghdad, came to the United States and settled in Detroit, where he was convicted in the late 1970s for illegal possession of visas and served eight months in prison. Almost immediately after his release, Tajirian began building his smuggling network, prosecutors said.

He recruited Middle Eastern clients in Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Greece, the prosecutors said, and he established travel agencies in Havana and Mexico City as well as Quito. In a typical smuggling transaction, Tajirian would recruit his clients, arrange lodging for them in Greece, Havana, Quito and Mexico City, and eventually arrange for local smugglers in northern Mexico to bring them into the United States, usually at El Paso or Laredo in Texas or through Tijuana, south of San Diego.

[thepitts]

YIKES! indeed.

[PsyOp]

Hmmm... sounds like a border version of the "Pheonix Program" might be in order.

[sarasmom]

Thank you for your much respected input.

I will now proceed to full panic mode.(I did not see the show and was hoping you might debunk the reports of it)

[Marine Inspector]

I will now proceed to full panic mode.

Don't go there right away. While we need to close the border and protect ourselves, the vast majority of these folks that come here just want a better life and are not looking to harm anyone. Also, I hear they vote Republican.

On the other hand, it only took 19 to do the damage they did on 9/11.

You many now proceed to FULL PANIC MODE.

[spycatcher]

Massive terror greater than 9-11 would be easy for them if you look at the sheer numbers. For instance, with Ashcroft's lowball estimate of 5000 sleepers, a coordinated "day of sleeper attacks" would be horrific even if they only used knives and pistols.

Say on the anniversary of 9-11 we had a LAX style terrorist times a thousand -- all at once killing as many random people as they can. With an unarmed population and no Israeli security to protect us the death toll would be insane.

Of course the FBI would report the thousands of isolated incidents were just a coincidence along with the date they all independently decided to "get despondent." And only those guys they had a file on would be counted as terrorists.

[sarcasm]

Has there been any increase in Iraqi illegals since September 11th?

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Great points. And now that we're going to allow Mexican truckers to operate in the Southwest U.S. can you only imagine what and who will be smuggled into the country. I doubt we'll inspect more than 30% of all vehicles crossing now since we refuse to mobilize and deploy the military resources to stop this problem. Whoraldo may have his faults, but this story should have caused more reaction than it did. But then again, the "what me worry" crowd in D.C. is more worried about the election in November than fufilling their duties to the Constitution of protecting our nation.

[Marine Inspector]

Agreed.

[Marine Inspector]

I'm on my way to work in an hour, I'll look into it.

[Marine Inspector]

Agreed.

[FITZ]

I would suspect that almost all serious terrorists are now looking to use the Mexico route.

I think the reason more will use the Mexico route now (but I think more terrorists came in through Canada before) is that Mexico has a vast illegal drug distribution network throughout Mexico and the US. These people don't care one iota about lives and can be bribed to do anything. The Colombians know how to get huge shipments of cocaine into the US and that's through the Mexican cartels, the terrorists I'm sure are bright enough to realize they'd work for their money as well.

[FITZ]

While we need to close the border and protect ourselves, the vast majority of these folks that come here just want a better life and are not looking to harm anyone.

Yes and some don't even intend to stay permanently in the US. I think for those who are really here doing certain jobs and not using fraudulent documents and IDs, there should be a guest worker program set up that makes it so they don't have to be illegal and can be screened before they come here. Some of those farm workers, maids, and gardeners are decent enough people, they don't need to be given citizenship but they shouldn't be treated like vicious criminals.

[Twodees]

Thanks for the link.

[wku man]

Ted? Is that you, Ted Turner?

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[gubamyster]

ping

[Brownie74]

Thanks for the pings. And don't forget this.

Islam taking root in southern Mexico. This could well be the next breeding ground for terrorism in this hemisphere. Getting them across the border won't be any problem unless we do put the military on the border. Fat chance of that happening.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Bump...

[Joe Hadenuf]

It's estimated that 500,000 of unknown national origin have crossed over the border with Mexico since 9-11-01.

Earth to Homeland defense!

[unixfox]

Another scary link about Mexico...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/711443/posts