Border security

Breaching The Border? Southern Border Remains An Avenue For ISIS

In his report, Jihadists at the Door, in the December/January 2016 issue of Homeland Security Today Magazine, Todd Bensman reports America’s counterterrorism efforts to prevent terrorist infiltration of America’s land borders has fallen short of legislative expectations, and its effectiveness is only rarely audited or assessed.

The unsettling truth is the southern border – in particular -- is, and remains, an avenue for ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other radical Islamist jihadi groups to enter the country. In the August 2009 cover report, Unholy Trinity, we reported that a Defense Department commissioned report found an alliance between Latin American narco-cartels, street gangs and jihadists.

Despite reporting there is no evidence to support the claim jihadists have not crossed the Southwest border into the United States, there is, in fact, evidence to the contrary.

For example, between 1999 and 2013, untold numbers of Special Interest Aliens – a term Customs and Border Protection (CBP) uses to classify people from Muslim countries that support or from which there is a significant jihadi presence -- had crossed the border. Seven-thousand were apprehended during that period of time.