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Federal law enforcement officials have identified a high number of individuals with Middle Eastern names, trembling with Mexican passports, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Since the beginning of 2022, approximately 30,000 Mexican passport holders were flagged as a part of the investigation into passport fraud. A senior official at DHS who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the agency will most likely investigate whether any of the individuals have traveled to the United States and if there are any patterns in their travel.
This concern for fraudulent passports comes after a huge surge of illegal migrants at the southern border continues to overwhelm the immigration system.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants are attempting to cross each month. Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies often lack the resources to properly vet who is entering the country.
DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last year that the U.S. risks losing its “first line of defense” because of the “unsustainable” amount of illegal immigration at the border.
Many fear that groups like al Qaeda could take advantage of the broken immigration system. Last April, two Yemeni nationals on the terrorist watchlist were apprehended at the southern border.
Law enforcement officials are concerned that bad actors could abuse the legal travel system to enter the country with passports obtained from Mexico and enter the United States legally.
Roughly 20 million Mexican citizens easily travel to the U.S. as tourists each year.
“This investigation highlights that criminals often use legal travel to facilitate criminal activity,” the senior DHS official told the Free Beacon. “The nexus to Mexico should cause the public and lawmakers to reflect on how a porous border can be even more dangerous.”
The concerning passports were identified by the agency’s National Targeting Center. This lesser-known subagency was created shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It “works quickly and quietly to identify people and products that pose potential threats to our Nation’s security, and to stop them from entering the United States,” according to a 2014 public memo.
The National Targeting Center also helps Immigration and Customs Enforcement by deporting money launderers and child predators. They regularly partner with other agencies on investigations involving terrorism or global criminal networks.
Truth Tent reported:
FBI director Christopher Wray testified in the Senate earlier this month that the border crisis “represents a significant security issue and represents a wide array of criminal threats that flow out of it.”
“Any port of entry, any potential vulnerability is something we know foreign terrorist organizations and others will seek to exploit,” Wray said.
Customs and Border Protection does not provide complete data on the total number of suspected terrorists apprehended at the southern border, citing security concerns. A joint report from the Department of Justice and DHS concluded that 2,554 individuals on the terror watch list attempted to enter the United States in 2017.
Biden’s Border Patrol chief testified under oath that there are “no consequences” for illegal immigrants who cross the southern border.
