President Trump's first steps to secure the U.S. borders as
he promised during his run for the presidency have been greeted by protest,
demonstrations, and outrage. Yet the record has been clear for years that
our country is at grave risk, not only from those who cross our porous borders
to do us harm, but also from those who have turned a blind eye and refuse to
see what has been occurring at the U.S.-Mexico border.
In August 2014, Judicial Watch (J.W.) broke the story that Islamic terrorist groups,
including ISIS and al-Qaeda, were operating in the Mexican border city, Juarez,
and planning attacks against the United States and that Fort Bliss, the El Paso
Army installation, was beefing up base security. Remarkably, the
Department of Homeland Security failed to respond to the story itself and to
direct inquiries from conservative, non-partisan Judicial Watch.
A few years earlier, at an El Paso meeting with border city
mayors, DHS chief Janet Napolitano stated,
"There is a perception that the border is worse now than it ever has
been."
In a reproach to public concerns about cross-border
terrorist activity and Republican opposition to the Obama administration's lax
border and illegal immigration policies, she asserted, "That is
wrong. The border is better now than it ever has been."
Clearly, it was politically inconvenient for Napolitano to
admit that the southern border was compromised, serving as the nexus of drug
cartels that control businesses worth hundreds of billions of dollars and of
Islamic terrorist group operatives, as cogently detailed by Judicial Watch
investigations.
Adding their voices to the politically correct chorus on
border security were FBI director James Comey and Texas congressman Beto
O'Rourke (D). In 2015, Comey responded to J.W.'s report by proclaiming it
"nonsense." He took a swipe at the government watchdog by
complaining about the inconvenience it posed to his staff to chase down
spurious charges. Congressman O'Rourke's
comments arose from his background as a former El Paso city councilman, known
for his boosterism of neighboring Juarez, Mexico, who had attempted to stop the
Minuteman Project – a citizen effort dedicated to patrolling the U.S.-Mexico
border – and had sponsored a resolution asking the federal government to end
the prohibition of illegal drugs. Not surprisingly, O'Rourke responded to border security concerns with
"[t]here has never been a terrorist organization or terrorist plot that
has successfully entered this country through the southern border."
The pushback from the FBI and other government officials
was surprising, especially at a time when there were anti-ISIS investigations in all 50 states. According to a
study from George Washington University's Program on Extremism, "As of the
fall of 2015, U.S. authorities speak of some 250 Americans who have traveled or
attempted to travel to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State (ISIS) and 900
active investigations against ISIS sympathizers in all 50 states."
A recently released report from the Texas Department of Public
Safety in collaboration with other law enforcement and homeland security
agencies confirms terrorist infiltration across the U.S.-Mexico border.
It cites examples of jihadists who have crossed the border since 2012,
including several who have used the opportunity to attempt travel to Syria to
join ISIS.
In "The Sun City Cell,"
a film produced by Judicial Watch in collaboration with Blaze TV, former
military intelligence officer Chris Farrell exposes the fallacy of such denials
as he reveals the underbelly of life at the southern border: an extensive
narco-terrorist network with ties to cartels, gangs, jihadist groups, law
enforcement, and politicians vying for money and power. Farrell has investigated
the region for four years and conducted extensive interviews with law
enforcement, government officials, civilians, and even sources with direct
contact with cartel members. He reveals how unpatrolled remote farm
roads, unguarded border areas, unsecured private airstrips, and hundreds of sanctuary cities amount to a
border-jumper's dream and an open invitation to criminals and terrorists.
Farrell, who currently serves as director of research and
investigations for Judicial Watch, explains how the Juarez-El Paso corridor is
a secure route for smuggling all kinds of contraband – money, drugs, people,
weapons – with the express assistance of corrupt and incompetent government
officials on both sides of the border. He describes how border-crossers
can easily acquire new identities replete with fake documents and obtain
training in language, culture, reconnaissance, and terrorist tactics. A
symbiotic win-win relationship between the cartels and Islamists offers mutual
assistance with counterfeiting expertise, drug-harvesting techniques, smuggling
operations, and guerrilla warfare training.
According to Farrell and his informants, Juarez, Mexico and
El Paso, Texas, the second largest binational metropolitan area on the
Mexico-U.S. border, are inextricably linked cartel-run cities. They
inhabit opposite sides of the Rio Grande and are connected by four
international ports. Juarez, situated on the Mexico-U.S. border just
south of El Paso with a population of 1.5 million, has been billed as "the
world's most violent city." It is home to over 300 maquiladora
manufacturing or export assembly plants employing over 250,000 workers, which
means constant cross-border traffic, not all of it legitimate.
In direct contrast, El Paso, a city of 700,000, often
referred to as "the safest city in America," is an air, truck, and
rail hub for commercial traffic. Its low crime rates belie the overriding
presence and influence of the cartels. According to informants, the
cartels control law enforcement and government officials and won't tolerate any
openly unlawful activity by its associates that could disrupt business in what
is considered its operational base in the U.S.
According to an El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization report, in 2007,
there were close to 23 million crossings by pedestrians, commuters, and
commercial trucks between Juarez and El Paso. With the constant movement
of people and goods back and forth, the area presents great opportunities for
moving contraband, money, and people across the border.
The extent of the threat is exemplified by thwarted
Chicago-area terrorist attacks planned by two wanted senior-level al-Qaeda
officers who entered the U.S. from Juarez in 2009. According to Judicial
Watch, Adnan el Shukrijuma, a commercial pilot and explosives expert billed as
al-Qaeda's #2 and "the next Mohammed Atta," and Jaber Elbaneh, an
associate of the Lackawanna Six terrorist cell that trained with al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan, easily entered the U.S. by avoiding established border crossings
altogether. They flew unhindered from Juarez, Mexico to the Cielo Dorado
Estates Airport, a private airfield eight miles across the border, a short
distance from El Paso, Texas.
Once in El Paso, the pair met with Emad Karakrah, an ISIS
operative and transportation and logistics expert involved in smuggling
operations for the cartel, and Hector Pedroza Huerta, his longtime associate
and an illegal alien with multiple arrests for intoxicated driving, to identify
potential terrorist targets inside the United States. Together, they
planned to attack Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios and the Sears Tower in Chicago.
After renting a U-Haul trailer and purchasing a step van,
they acquired Tannerite, a binary explosive, legal for purchase in all 50
states and used for exploding targets in firearms practice, and C-4, a
malleable plastic explosive used by the U.S. Armed Forces and acquired through
access to Fort Bliss in El Paso. Karakrah and Huerta then drove to
Chicago, where they were foiled by law enforcement.
Curiously, at the time of Karakrah's and Huerta's
apprehension, the FBI did not publicize the thwarted attack or release any
pertinent information. The perpetrators were remanded to county jails on
lesser charges and soon released. Requests for information from the FBI
and the Department of Justice went unanswered. It wasn't until five years
later that news of the foiled attack was revealed, when two unrelated arrests
brought the situation to light.
On August 28, 2014, Karakrah was arrested in Chicago after
leading the police on a high-speed chase while flying an ISIS flag out of the
window of his car. When officers attempted to inspect his vehicle, he
threatened to detonate an explosive device. A few weeks earlier, Huerta,
his partner in crime, was arrested in El Paso for a third DWI.
After their arrests, it was revealed that both men, alleged
smugglers of drugs and weapons, had partnered in a plan to commit the Chicago
bombings at the behest of two of the FBI's "most wanted" terrorists:
Jaber Elbaneh and Adnan el Shukrijuma. Curiously, neither Karakrah nor
Huerta faced federal charges for their respective roles in the failed
plots. Remarkably, both men were released from custody in 2015 on plea
deals, and their current whereabouts are unknown.
Surprisingly, the attempted bombing received little media
attention. Instead of arresting Karakrah in 2009, the FBI enlisted him as
a confidential informant. It is speculated that no federal action may
have been taken for political reasons, either to maintain Obama's charade that
al-Qaeda had been defeated and that "ISIS is a J.V. team" or to avoid
the embarrassment of revealing that people implicated in attacks were
cooperating with the government.
In December 2014, Shukrajumah, who had left the country to
avoid capture and questioning, was killed by the Pakistan Army. Possibly,
as a top al-Qaeda leader and coordinator of terrorist operations wanted by the
U.S. government, he represented too great a risk to future al-Qaeda
operations.
Clearly, every part of the country is affected by the
growing threat posed by cartels, terrorist networks, and criminals who traffic
in drugs, humans, weapons, and money. This bad situation
deteriorated further under Barack Obama's lax border and immigration policies
and his mandate to reduce the presence and authority of law enforcement and
border and customs agencies.
The Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C. reported that under the Obama administration,
the number of illegal aliens selected for deportation from the United States
declined 34% between FY2011 and FY2013, and criminal arrests declined by 11%
from FY2012 to FY2013. In 2012, Obama closed nineborder
stations: six in Texas and one each in California, Montana, and Idaho.
Fortunately, the days of Mexican drug cartels and
terrorists being able to operate with impunity on both sides of the border may
be over. In October 2016, presidential candidate Trump said,
"I have a message for the drug dealers, for the gang members and the
criminal cartels: your days are numbered."
Hopefully, President Trump's pledge and his recent
executive orders to build a wall on the Mexico-U.S. border, end aid to
sanctuary cities, and limit immigration are just the start of efforts to
enforce immigration laws, secure the border, and put an end to this grave
threat to the homeland.
