Here is an excerpt from my latest article for Homeland Security Today's Correspondents' Watch:
"Immigrants have been flocking to the United States ever since we became a country, so fluctuations in migration trends are nothing new. However, immigration patterns - particularly from countries associated with terrorism - took on a whole new meaning after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. At that time homeland security officials started paying special attention to individuals arriving from what were deemed 'Special Interest Countries' (SICs). These are nations with ties in one form or another to terrorism. The individuals from these countries who enter the United States illegally are known as 'Special Interest Aliens' (SIAs).
"The number of SICs has varied only slightly in recent years, roughly between 28 and 31. They include countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Syria and Somalia. What makes things really interesting is that there are already hundreds of thousands of SIAs who have been living in the United States for decades.
"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) generally doesn’t like to advertise these statistics, but Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has regularly provided Homeland Security Today with spreadsheets that break down not only the numbers of SIAs who've been apprehended trying to illegally enter the US, but also apprehensions of all persons CBP categorizes as 'Other than Mexicans' (OTMs) who've been caught entering the country illegally. The statistics relied on for this report are for fiscal years 1999 through 2010."
The read the rest of my article on HSToday.us, please CLICK HERE!
We might need to broaden the net a little in the future. With the recruitment of MS-13 members/leadership by Hizbollah et al and thier conversion to Islam, Special Interest people should include folks who present evidence of radical (or even non radical) Islam affiliations (literature, tatoos, etc). While the cartels are pretty good at wreaking havoc, they are country rubes compared to the insurgent abilities of Hizbollah and other Islamism group.
Posted by: anonymous_hero | May 12, 2011 at 10:02 AM
anonymous_hero ... got a link for that story?
thanks, P
Posted by: P | May 12, 2011 at 02:11 PM
You state: ‘’ homeland security will need to use every tool in their arsenal to separate those SIAs who are merely seeking safety and a better way of life from those who mean to do us harm.’’
In other articles you have lamented much the same by stating that you are not so much concerned about Jose and the Maria, but instead concerned with the DTO members and supposed terrorists. What you are stating smacks much of the white glove approach to the problem we face with the seemingly endless mass of those being smuggled across our borders. You lament that our resources ( ‘’arsenal ) should be directed toward these DTO’s and supposed terrorists…while not paying much if any attention to Jose & Maria, and the smuggling organization largely responsible for their being here? Actually Sylvia, and perhaps surprising for you to learn, your lamentation is pretty much what took root after the IN&S was dissolved, and Customs and Border Patrol were meshed into this new and ‘improved’ mess we have today. With the investigative branch being dubbed as ICE and ran under the direction of the ole Customs boys, who historically their only contact with Illegal Aliens had been the waiters at various restaurants where they dinned. The ‘’raw’’ Illegal Aliens were something they had read reports or news clips about, but which they had never encountered. I really don’t know if it was the smell of the raw Aliens as many claimed, or if it had more to do with the fact that many of them couldn’t speak Spanish, personally I think it was a mixture. At any rate they found an easy out to keep from getting involved with the Alien Smuggling through the MOU, and the fact that the Bush admin. never gave them any funds to work with. So off they went with their white gloves chasing dope & terrorists, on a much limited budget of course.
While what you state about the need for the agencies to separate the DTO’s and terrorists from those supposedly only seeking a better life is perhaps a good sound bite for many, it is not for those of us who know that the only place the two/three groups can be separated is in the processing room. Then what do we do, hang onto the terrorists and DTO members and cut everyone else loose? Or are you suggesting that we ‘’somehow’’ determine between the two groups in the field, and never detain Jose & Maria in the first place? I’m not certain, but I think such an act on the part of a Patrol Agent could gets his butt fired.
Thanks, Fred
Posted by: Fred | May 12, 2011 at 06:36 PM
@P I heard it at the 2011 Border Security Expo in Phoenix. It was in a talk by Michael McNicholas, Managing Director, Phoenix Management Services Group. Supposedly he got the information from OSINT. Most of the islamists are Hizbollah (Iran) but .there are some Sunni groups as well. The conversions to islam is happening within the M-18 (I mis-typed but MS-13 is being converted as well) leadership. I believe he mentioned that the M-18 leader in Honduras converted to islam and is pushing all the clicks convert to Islam. Hamas/Hizbollah/islamist graffiti is being found in M-18/MS-13 El Salvador barrios.
As long as they continue to do their job for the cartels I doubt the cartels will care but eventually ideology, rather than profit, will become their main motivation. As a side note islam is gaining a lot of converts in central/south america as people get dissatisfied with the socialist catholic clergy (socialism is a Catholic heresy) and touchy-feely evangelists. I would think that the certainty that Islam provides is attractive and its adversarialy stance against the "infidel" fits nicely within the neo-marxist oppressed vs oppersser dynamic that pervades that society.
Posted by: anonymous_hero | May 16, 2011 at 10:53 AM
anonymous hero: I was completely unaware that Islam was gaining grounds in Central America. While i would not be surprised to see Hizbollah try something like that - I am very surprised that MS-13 gang members are going for it. It just seems completely counter to their whole culture in that region. The media need to start working some stories about this ... if it's happening on a wide scale then mosques should start appearing in the barrio's. There would also be a need for radical imam's, if Islam is to become entrenched in that setting.
P.
Posted by: P | May 16, 2011 at 02:04 PM
The Wahhabi's have been big in Trinidad for a while and there is a strong Syrian (read Iran) presence in Venezuela; the second in command of the country is Syrian and the link below came out today. The Tri-border region is old news. I think they are just going with the flow and have found a way to make lots of money (drugs) while at the same time infiltrating the great Satan. As for the gangs I would think they would see it as a win win. Going the Islamist path not only allows them to get "right with God" but also to continue their thug life, which is addictive. For the average central American Islam offers a very solid declaration of "truth" and a certainty in life that is attractive in a world of chaos. It is unfortunate that the Catholic clergy down there do not offer the same (which they can easily do within orthodox Catholicism) but instead are still infatuated with "social justice" and forms of Marxist liberation theology.
It will be interesting if we or Israel ever attack Iran and the Hezbollah cells in the US become active as well as the gang members that have be ideologized (new word).
We are on the verge of having a Cuban missile crisis with Obama in command. Get those bunkers ready.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/05/16/german-paper-iran-is-building-rocket-launch-bases-in-venezuela/
Posted by: anonymous_hero | May 17, 2011 at 12:49 AM
What the US needs to do is to seal the border, stop anyone, regardless of whether they are drug dealers of poor migrants trying to cross the border illegaly.
Maybe then the Mexican people will understand that they only solution for us to fix our problems here ourselves. Ours is no little country, we are vast nation plentiful in resources and hard-working people too. The US border has served as a exaust pipe for decades of negligent and corrupted governments who simply did not nothing to improve people's lives in many communities. We are a nation of 100 million people and we have huge industrialized cities accross the country. So I am certain we can handle it, I am certain we will be able to take care of those poor Mexicans, but they need to come back, they need to understand that there is no more US to cross to, but that they have to stay here and demand better living conditions, work hard, save and administer their money correctly and vote, vote for better governments. That's the only way out. But the US must also understand that there will always be trends in movements of people among neighboring nations, that must be kept at tolerable levels, for example in Mexico there are around two million americans, hundreds of thousands of Canadians and Europeans also live here too. So there are trends too that have historically taken place.
On the other hand, more than half a million of central and south americans cross our territories each year seeking to arrive to the US, among them hundreds, thousands of other people from the Middle East and Central and South Asia also come, Mexico already deports hundreds of thousands of foreigners each year too. That has to be addressed, we have to seal our southern border and apply controls at our airports.
Posted by: Jose Angel de Monterrey | May 19, 2011 at 11:09 PM