http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=10427

Tex. Senator Shown Evidence of Arab Personal Effects at Mexican Border


Posted Nov 22, 2005

Sen. John Cornyn (R.-Tex.), chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, told HUMAN EVENTS he has seen anecdotal evidence of Arabic belongings--including juice boxes with Arabic writing and an image of a plane hitting a building--that were discovered in Larado, Tex., near the Mexican border.

Cornyn, one of the key players in the ongoing debate over immigration reform, said he learned of the discoveries when he was shown pictures of them by a government official.

When asked why the White House wouldn't make such information publicly available--particularly in light of the threat of al Qaeda--Cornyn said it's a matter of intelligence. However, he disclosed the details of the two items in an exclusive interview with HUMAN EVENTS.

Cornyn is sponsoring with Sen. Jon Kyl (R.-Ariz.) the Comprehensive Enforcement and Immigration Reform Act (S. 143, which includes border security and worksite enforcement measures along with a guest-worker program that penalizes with fines illegal aliens who refuse to leave the United States.

This is the second part of Cornyn’s interview with the editors of HUMAN EVENTS. Yesterday we featured his comments on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.


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Noises out of the White House seem to indicate that one thing the President is going to be active in pursuing as an agenda item in the next year is immigration reform. Central to his idea of immigration reform is a guest-worker program. You are a sponsor of an immigration reform proposal. Could you sketch out the major provisions of that?

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R.-TEX.): I don’t think it’s in terms of conviction, but I think in terms of message, the President stumbled out of the gate when he talked about a guest-worker program being the central feature of his immigration reform plan. The message that America wants to hear, and the message that America needs, is security.


We’re seeing that now, not just in places like Texas and border states, but also across the nation. People realize instinctively in a post-9/11 world that we have to know who is coming into our country and why they are here. We have no confidence of that now. We have flawed policies like the catch-and-release program. Border security has been inadequately funded, inadequately staffed. We simply have to gain security at the border. It can’t just be border security. We have to deal with it in the interior. Right now, once you get by the border, you’re home free. You melt into the landscape. And we need to deal with it at the workplace.

Adm. James Loy, who is the deputy secretary for Homeland Security, testified before the Intelligence Committee earlier this year that they had reason to believe that al Qaeda had looked at coming across the Mexican border to infiltrate the United States because it would give them greater operational security, I think he said. Do you think that’s a credible threat? Do you have reason to believe that al Qaeda might want to come across our border?

CORNYN: Absolutely. Why not? It’s easy to do.

Do you have any information yourself about that?

CORNYN: I don’t have any information that’s it has actually happened.

What about people telling you that it’s likely to happen?

CORNYN: To me, it’s just obvious, because if you have an open door for someone to walk through, why would you climb over the wall. I think, essentially, our border in between our points of entry areâ€â€