Thread: Examining Illegal immigration from the Muslim World

You will need to go to the original article to get the links to each part...

July 28, 2008
Todd_Bensman.jpgby Todd Bensman
The San Antonio Express

Five Part indepth series, links follow intoduction
Since 9-11, homeland security agencies have caught thousands of "special interest aliens" trying to cross U.S. borders illegally. Most of the travelers, whom federal agents label "SIA" for hailing from Islamic countries, are economic or political refugees seeking better lives.

But this continuing traffic over American borders is an uncomfortable, unassailable fact that has gone largely unacknowledged or explored in the bitterly divisive national debate over how to balance immigration reform with national security in an age of terrorism. The traffic begs an unaddressed question: If an Iraqi war refugee can hire smugglers and travel from Syria to Texas for $4,000, couldn’t an equally determined terrorist?

To document the hidden world of special interest immigrants, San Antonio Express-News Staff Writer Todd Bensman retraced the steps of Iraqi war refugee Aamr Bahnan Boles, who swam the Rio Grande and stepped into Texas on April 29, 2006 . Bensman traveled to Damascus, Syria; Amman, Jordan; throughout Guatemala; the southern border state of Chiapas, Mexico; Brownsville and elsewhere along he Texas border; and Michigan.

Bensman documented routes used by smugglers to move immigrants like Boles from Islamic countries, including a popular one from Syria to Texas that was used by Boles. The Express-News hired Arabic language interpreters in Syria, Jordan and Texas, where Boles first was interviewed extensively. Bensman obtained materials from overseas smuggling investigations and hundreds of daily intelligence summaries reflecting Texas border crossings by special interest immigrants.

He interviewed U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials in both countries, and examined U.S. court records from a dozen unreported federal smuggling prosecutions involving Middle Eastern suspects. Some dialogue and scenes in this series were reconstructed based on interviews with Boles and, when possible, others who were present.

Click on each Part for full report

PART ONE Clandestine travel plans hatched on the far side of the globe bring many immigrants illegally to America from Islamic Countries, a pipeline that grows daily with Iraq war refugees.dsc_0182.jpg Aamr Bahnan Boles (pictured left) met his smuggler in a backwater refugee slum of Damascus.

Part Two The Latin America Connection Guatemala, where U.S. counterterrorism clashes with smuggling is one of the busiest bridges carrying special interest immigrants to America. American counterterrorism agencies seem powerless to stop the flow.

Part Three Stuck In The Middle-Wedged between a skittish United States and the bridges to America traversed by migrants from Islamic countries, Mexico seeks to stop illicit northbound traffic, partnering with U.S. intelligence agencies in secret programs.

Part Four ‘i’ve Made It To America’

When Iraqi war refugee Boles crossed the Rio Grande, authorities assumed the worst about him. In the current climate of uncertainty and fear about such immigrants, they had little choice. For Boles, it was literally a test of faith.

DID TERRORISTS CROSS?

Many assume not. They would be wrong.

Part Five - The Flight Of The Chaldean Christians

Iraqis fleeing the war are increasingly making their way toward American borders as illegal immigrants. But many of them are far from insurgents bent on doing harm to America. They are from a Christian minority, persecuted and tormented by the same Islamic extremists the U.S. fears just as much. Among them are single young men of fighting age like Boles. But whole families are making their way over too.

An Iraq Christian in the Damascus suburb known as “Little Fallujah,â€

Should we really be surprised since the 9/11 attackers came across the Canadian border. No don't tell me we are going to have to teach our kids Arabic along with Spanish.