www.woai.com

Click to Watch Video


Crossing the Border: News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooters Investigate

Coyotes smuggle thousands of illegal immigrants across the Texas-Mexico border. Could one of these immigrants actually be a terrorist? The News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooters are investigating.

Illegal immigrants being smuggled across our border. It is exclusive video shot by the News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooters.

They tell us they are coming to find work, but that may not always be the case.

The U.S. Government says there is evidence that Al Qaeda terrorists have plotted to sneak into the United States using the Mexican border. The fear is that the illegal immigrant smuggler on the other side may help them without knowing it.

Raul is an immigrant smuggler who agreed to be interviewed if we did not reveal his identity.

Brian: "How do you know someone you've smuggled into the United States is not a terrorist?"

Raul: "I don't think so because I know the Spanish Language very well and the accents from other countries, too. I am sure that I didn't bring anyone across like that. I've turned people away that I couldn't trust, that didn't come with good intentions. I won't bring them across."

But Raul may just be telling us what he thinks we want to hear.

Eventually he admits he cannot know who is or is not a terrorist.

Raul: "Well, I make a mistake, but I'm not doing it with bad intentions."

He agrees to take the Trouble Shooters along as he and his crew (are) sneaking immigrants across the Rio Grande River from Reynosa, Mexico into McAllen.

Along the way, they record this amazing confrontation with border patrol agents.

Coyote: "Go. No, no, no!!! Go with him! Go! Go! (Other voice) Go! Go! Go that way!"

Border Patrol: "Hey! Where is your coyote?!"

Coyote: "Go go! Lets go!"

One of the border patrol agents shines his flashlight on the immigrants as they crouch in the tall grass.

Border Patrol: "Who's over there? "

Coyote: "Go! Run, run run(repeatedly)!!!"

Other voice: "Go! Its the police, go! (Sounding frustrated) Just go!"

A few seconds later you can hear the border patrol agent threatening to shoot the immigrants.

Border Patrol: "Hey man, I'm going to shoot you."

Coyote: "Go go go go!!! You go over there. Get up there! Other coyote voice) Run run! Go go go!"

We showed our video to U.S. Senator John Cornyn.

Brian: "Can we stop terrorists from coming across our border?"

Sen. Cornyn: "Now. No. We simply don't have the people, we don't have the technology, we don't have the assets in place to do that and it's a national security travesty."

So cornyn has filed legislation to help in the war on terror along our border.

Sen. Cornyn: "Well, first of all we will deploy up to 10,000 new border patrol agents over the next five years."

But until then, these immigrant smugglers are making life difficult for those responsible for this war zone.

Border Patrol Agent: "Obviously we are always concerned that smugglers might attempt to smuggle a terrorist into the country and that's why we continue to shift resources into the areas where smugglers are bringing in large amounts of people to."

Border patrol says it's also working more closely with Mexican authorities.

But from what we saw, they can't count on the notoriously corrupt Mexican police.

At one point, they even showed up only to greet the coyote like a long lost friend.

Raul later told us he pays the cops big bucks to look the other way.

Raul: "It's the (US) government's fault. They create enemies where they had friends. They make enemies not friends trying to fight for land with oil. By going to Iraq they have created a great enemy that they're still fighting. No, it's not our fault. We're just bringing people here that want to work and prosper."

The fear is that he and other smugglers like him may bring someone into the country who wants to do us harm.