FBI: Iraqis Being Smuggled Across the Rio Grande

July 17, 2007 3:11 PM

Brian Ross Reports:

The FBI is investigating an alleged human smuggling operation based in Chaparral, N.M., that agents say is bringing "Iraqis and other Middle Eastern" individuals across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

An FBI intelligence report distributed by the Washington, D.C. Joint Terrorism Task Force, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, says the illegal ring has been bringing Iraqis across the border illegally for more than a year.

Border Patrol officials in the area said they were unaware of the specifics of the FBI's report, and federal prosecutors in New Mexico told ABCNews.com they had no current cases involving the illegal smuggling of Iraqis.

The FBI report, issued last week, says the smuggling organization "used to smuggle Mexicans, but decided to smuggle Iraqi or other Middle Eastern individuals because it was more lucrative." Each individual would be charged a fee of $20,000 to $25,000, according to the report.

The people to be smuggled would "gather at a house on the Mexican side of the border" and then cross the Rio Grande into the U.S., the report says.

"Unidentified individuals would then transport them to train stations in El Paso, Texas or Belen, New Mexico," according to the FBI document.

A spokesman in Albuquerque said the FBI had "no viable information" that could lead to a case.

Until recently, the United States has kept its doors all but shut to the estimated two million refugees fleeing the violence in Iraq. Until this year, the country had taken in fewer than 800 Iraqi refugees, according to the State Department. This May, the Bush administration pledged to resettle 7,000 Iraqi refugees here by the end of the year.


http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/200 ... -bein.html

These people MUST be terrorists. They couldn't possibly be any of the Iraqi refugees that the US promised to take in but has failed to do so.

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/read ... Num=193450

There's a huge difference PD. First, I'm sure the Iraqi refugees would could through intense screening to ensure that there was no risk in bringing them into the US. Usually the first Iraqis allowed into the country would be ones that helped US forces and are now at a risk for being targeted in Iraq. I'm sure many of these people can't even afford to come to the US on their own and need our assistance. On the other hand, these people are supposedly paying $25,000 to sneak into the country and could easily be a terrorist or foreign militant. I don't know how you could possibly suggest that these people are the refugees sitting around waiting to be airlifted out.

I'm not really suggesting that the people are one and the same as those "refugees" in the article, but the immediate insinuation when one says "smuggled Iraqis" is that they are somehow here to do America harm, when I would like to raise the idea that they are FAR more likely, especially in the numbers reported in this story, to be professionals (doctors, lawyers, scientists, university professors) who are smart enough and have the means to get the fuck out of Iraq.

I find it a little odd that a professional would want to come here and live as an illegal immigrant and not be able to practice a meaningful profession. Especially when millions of Iraqis have been accepted into other Middle Eastern countries like Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. Granted, I don't know what the conditions for working are like in these countries for refugees.

Oh really? Can you you support that claim that millions of Iraqis have been accepted into those countries? Because those countries have been such welcoming sanctuaries for Palestinians for the past 60 years...

as usual, it's all just a bunch of hysteria - nobody should really be worried about individuals from a country with a large Al-Qaeda presence and a lot of reasons to become radicalized sneaking across our borders illegally. surely it's 100% comprised of people here to realize the American dream.

According to Associated Press, 790,000 refugees left Iraq in 2006 alone, so I'm assuming the other years since the war began had similar numbers. We're in our fifth year of the war so the number must be a couple million by now.

790,000 in 2006.
Syria - 449,000
Jordan - 250,000
Egypt - 80,000

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19708787/

David, you are really tugging at strings on this one.

What business would highly educated professionals have in coming to America illegally? For real. Why wouldn't they come here legally? Such professions are highly sought in the Arab world...everywhere. There is a huge demand for professionals in Cairo, Jeddah, Dubai, Kuwait City. The idea that these people would cross the ocean, go to Mexico, get SMUGGLED in, and then just open up a practice in America is pretty much laughable and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Arab nations HAVE taken in all kinds of Iraqi refugees. Why don't they accept Palestinian's? Because they shouldn't have to. Israel is the Palestinian's land. These nation will never EVER take in Palestinian's because then they have less traction to point fingers at Israel. So long as Arab leaders and third bit despots manage to keep Palestinians corraled in poverty in places like Jenin, they not only have a proper breeding ground for future terrorists (poor, stupid, and brainwashed), but they also have a convenient area to point to the UN and say, "look at what the Jews are doing to these people!"

Palestinian's will never gain citizenship into any Arab countries simply because of Right of Return, and the political stances of Arab nations on Israel.

I would fathom that it's a pretty good guess that these Iraqi's coming into America from Mexico are indeed here to do more harm than good. I would imagine they are recieving outside finances to accomplish what they're doing as well.

Ever since Brian Ross got ahold of the DC Madam phone records a few months ago and hyped up a big tell-all on ABC news, only to say that they scoured the list and didn't come up with anybody worth mentioning (either in Congress or a big time lobbyist), I don't trust his "big scoops" like this.
Hell, ABC news couldn't find anything, right? But porn king Larry Flynt outed Senator David Vitter and says he has at least 30 more prominent names in the batter's box. So Hustler magazine is a better source than ABC.....or they won't be bought off.
If Iraqis are sneaking across the border, let Larry Flint produce a few, and then I'll believe it.

i think it's actually pretty naive to assume this hasn't been happening for some time, not with Iraqis in particular but with Islamic militants in general. when you consider how easy it is to get across, why in the world wouldn't they come in this way?

I agree. I just resent the way this story was presented, as if they have solid evidence of something, but in reality they only have scary questions. That's your modern newsmedia for ya.