Fox Pulse: Terrorists being smuggled in from Mexico

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

[spycatcher]

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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.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I read that article. Scary stuff, while our so called leaders completely ignore the will and outrage of the people, that they are suppose to be representing!

[spycatcher]

I'm thinking that a whole lot of these arabs who may look hispanic are getting false ID's and papers to appear to be from Mexico or other Central American countries famous for allowing "tourists" from the Middle East.

So learning fluent Spanish may be the new priority for terrorists instead of learning how to fly.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Thanks for the ping. Notice that the politician worshipers and and other assorted political hacks ignore threads like these?

Heads deep in the sand......

[spycatcher]

Maybe Bush is being told by Vicente Fox that if we close the borders the terrorists will just back up into Mexico waiting it out, while spreading Islam!

[McGavin999]

I guess it escaped your attention that they were quoting a UPI article?

[sarcasm]

They also seem not to notice pings to such articles.

[Marine Inspector]

This is what I dug up at work today. Since 9/11, over 500 Iraqi's have arrived at the San Ysidro, California Port of Entry from Tijuana, Mexico and applied for asylum in the US.

I don’t have any Border Patrol numbers yet, and it looks like it may take a while, but I will get them.

The thing that scares me is that fact that many of these 500 Iraqi’s may be walking freely in the US. I know INS has limited detention space and must sometimes release these folks into the US until their case is finalized.

So, how many of these Iraqi’s are not actually looking for asylum and are now walking around the US?

I sure don’t know and I doubt the INS will tell anyone the truth.

[sarcasm]

Thanks - I'm sure that they wouldn't think of using the refugee program to infiltrate sleepers.

[brat]

Bu-bu-but Mexico is our FRIEND and partner! We need to embrace each other or we'll be called RACISTS! ~sarcasm off~

[brat]

Tancredo Bump!

[brat]

." Notice that the politician worshipers and and other assorted political hacks ignore threads like these?"

Oh yes, they only come out to snipe at us when its safe....or when their vicious streak gets the best of them. LOL I love it when they demand FACTS and DETAILS then proceed to ignore them while accusing us of not answering their questions. LOL

[Marine Inspector]

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

In FY 2001, the Border Patrol apprehended 12 Iraqi illegals.

In the first 8 months of FY 2002 that number has jumped to 18.

Looks like it's on the rise.

[Lysander]

You mean interdiction doesn't work with drugs?

Wonder why people support spending so much money on something that doesn't work? Could it be the money? I wonder if there were no huge profits from pot if the importation of drugs would drop off and we could then focus on terrorists?

[DreamWeaver]

This may come back to bite Bush in the *ss.

This may/will come back to bite us Americans much more than in the @ss. Votes is not what concerns me at this point, it is our LIVES that are at stake here !

[habaes corpussel]

500,000 middle easterners since 911? Maybe hundreds not 500,000. Fox better check its pulse. Its creditability is begining to suffer. The problem with Fox is it’s a talk station not a news station. With exception of Special Report with Brit Hume. That is the only valid news program Fox has. The rest of it is babble.

[spycatcher]

Looks like you didn't listen to the show or read the thread. It was actually an Emmy caliber investigative report by Geraldo. Neither Fox nor anybody else in the thread said anything close to 500,000 middle easterners.

That's was a 500,000 assorted nationality total, non-mexican illegals are various percentages of that. Large percentages are from Central America and probably 5% from the middle east.

[spycatcher]

Thanks for all the good info.

[spycatcher]

Sorry, I should have used "assorted" instead of "unknown" in the original post just to make it more clear. It's only unknown in the sense that the feds don't let on how bad it's getting with various non-Mexican nationals. So we have to rely on investigative reporters, insider leaks, and common sense to figure out the truth.

[habaes corpussel]

"It was actually an Emmy caliber investigative report by Geraldo."

This is a contradiction in terms, especially with Geraldo. I did mis-speak about labeling the 500,000 middle easterns, but even 500,000 of unknown national origin since 911 crossing from Mexico is a huge exaggeration. There is no basis in fact for this estimation. I have seen no reports that indicate anywhere near this number. I seen numbers ranging from 8000 to 20,000 which is a concern but no where near 500,000. We would have had to have a total collapse of our boarder security, which is suffering but not that bad. This is rresponsible journalism in my view.

[habaes corpussel]

"So we have to rely on investigative reporters, insider leaks, and common sense to figure out the truth."

Normally I would agree with you, but not with Geraldo.