BP Starts Fiscal Year Arresting Thousands of Illegal Immigrants from Africa, Middle East

The crisis along the Mexican border continues full throttle in the new fiscal year with one Border Patrol sector encountering tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from dozens of countries—including Africa and the Middle East—in the first month. The new government figures show a scary trend among migrants entering the country through the famously porous southern border. In October alone, the first month of fiscal year 2022, the Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector in Texas reported 28,111 illegal aliens from more than 50 countries. They include Syria, Lebanon, Eritrea, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, a central Asian nation that borders Afghanistan, which is controlled by the Taliban after the abrupt exit of U.S. troops earlier this year.

Government statistics contradict the popular narrative promoted by the open orders movement and its allies in the mainstream media, that the southern border is primarily a thoroughfare for impoverished Latin Americans desperate for a better life. In fiscal year 2021, which ended in September, the Del Rio sector encountered migrants from 106 countries and the trend appears to be holding steady with illegal aliens from nations with terrorist ties. November was also quite busy. Border Patrol in the same Texas sector apprehended six nationals of Eritrea, a northeast African country on the Red Sea coast, two Syrian males, a man from Lebanon, home of the terrorist group Hezbollah, two men from Tajikistan as well as a man from Uzbekistan. “We encounter individuals from all over the world attempting to illegally enter our country,” according to Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Jason D. Ownes. “Our agents are focused and work hard to ensure that we detect, arrest, and identify anyone that enters our country in order to maintain safety of our communities.”

The new figures come on the heels of a record-breaking fiscal year for illegal immigrant apprehensions (1,659,205) along the southern border that includes unprecedented numbers from countries other than Latin America. In the final month, there was a spike of migrants from Haiti (132%), Turkey (89%), India (82%), Ukraine (81%) and even China (75%). The number of illegal aliens from Russia nearly doubled from 758 to 1,432 during the same period, according to year-end figures provided in October by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The chilling stats illustrate the magnitude of the national security and humanitarian crisis created by the Biden administration’s disastrous border policies. Eight of the nine Border Patrol sectors saw triple-digit percentage increases in illegal immigrants over the previous year and one, Yuma in Arizona, reported an eye-popping 1,200.4% hike in apprehensions. The Del Rio sector, which started the new fiscal year with a bang, ended 2021 with an unbelievable 542.7% surge.

Most of the illegal aliens arrested by the U.S. in 2021 came from Mexico (608,000) followed by the Central American nations of Honduras (309,000), Guatemala (279,000) and El Salvador (96,000). But a growing number of migrants from other countries, including those with ties to terrorism, are attempting to enter the U.S. via Mexico. The government classifies them as Special Interest Aliens (SIA) and they are flowing north via Latin America thanks to established Transitional Criminal Organizations (TCO) that facilitate travel along drug and migrant smuggling routes. Tens of thousands of SIAs—from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa—entered Panama and Colombia in recent years, according to a congressional investigation, that determined nearly all the SIA were headed to the U.S. Most came from Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, India, and Bangladesh, a south Asian Islamic country well known as a recruiting ground for terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). The same federal probe exposed an astounding 300% increase in Bangladeshi nationals attempting to sneak into the country through Texas alone.

It is worth noting that Mexico is a hotbed of Islamic terrorism. As part of an ongoing investigation into the national security threats along the southern border, Judicial Watch has reported that Islamic jihadists are training in southern border towns near American cities and have joined forces with Mexican drug cartels to infiltrate the United States. Years ago, a high-ranking Homeland Security official confirmed to Judicial Watch that Mexican drug traffickers help Islamic terrorists stationed in Mexico cross into the U.S. to explore targets for future attacks. Among the jihadists that traveled back and forth through the southern border was a Kuwaiti named Shaykh Mahmood Omar Khabir, an ISIS operative who lives in the Mexican state of Chihuahua not far from El Paso. Another was a Saudi Al Qaeda operative, Adnan G. El Shurkrjumah, wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during his undetected cross-border jaunts.