Texas official: Illegal immigration and terrorism linked
http://blogs.chron.com/texaspolitics/ar ... icial.html
Texas official: Illegal immigration and terrorism linked
June 2, 2006
Gov. Rick Perry's homeland security director told reporters this morning that there is a "tsunami" of illegal immigration coming across the Texas border and many have to be suspected of al-Qaida ties.
"If you think of it as an army of jihadists coming into the country to do corporate style al-Qaida attacks, simultaneous attacks, everyone counts," said Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw
McCraw said he does not like to view the issue as illegal immigration.
"I don't call it illegal immigration so much as human smuggling," he said. "In a post-9/11 environment, I have no problem using that tsunami word, even though some people might say that's overstating the issue.
McCraw said 133,045 people other than Mexican nationals were arrested in Texas last year entering the country illegally.
"Individuals that came from Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan. We know we have an al-Qaida front. Those are the ones we caught. What about the ones we didn't catch?" McCraw said.
When pressed on the issue, McCraw admitted not all of these people were suspected terrorists.
"Not al-Qaida ties. Al-Qaida countries. I'm not going to take the links or associations of individuals back to terrorist groups or organizations in terms of those individuals were terrorist," he said.
"Some of these people may not be coming here for economic reasons, but they maybe. It doesn't mean they're terrorists just because they come from these countries. But there is a higher probability that they are or they are linked in some way shape or fashion. Some people might say that's country profiling. Well, get over it," McCraw said.
"Keep in minds that links sometimes might be second, third degree relationships to criminal organizations. Maybe it's a Pakistani group that focuses on moving people across," he said.
McCraw said he only knew of one individual in the 133,000 who might have a link to a terrorist organization, but he declined to discuss the details.
"We can't afford that open pathway into our country," he said.