Terrorism & Other than Mexican (OTM) Illegal Aliens

Other than Mexican (OTM) is a strange term. What does it mean? Ninety percent of the illegal aliens who cross the U.S. southern border each year from Mexico are Mexicans. The rest that come from all parts of the world are labeled Other than Mexican illegals by our government.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that oversees Customs, Immigration and Border Patrol enforcement said in a recent oversight committee that tens of thousands of OTMs enter the U.S. illegally each year. They have no idea of the actual number. Their statistics for 2005 show that of the 98,000 illegal aliens detained by the U.S. Border Patrol from countries other than Mexico (OTMs) 70 percent (68,800) were immediately released into the interior of the U.S.

Why? Their home countries wouldn’t take them back and because we didn’t have a place to keep them, each was given a “ticket” and released after promising to return for his court date. Twelve percent returned in 2006, which left over 60,000 unaccounted for, and in some Texas Border Patrol sectors during this time the “no-show” rates were as high as 98 percent. Many of those released have serious prior felony criminal records. On October 18, 2005 the Border Patrol finally ended the “Catch & Release” program. Now the illegal aliens are supposed to be kept until the legality of their status is determined and then deported if they are here illegally. Sounds easy and logical until anti-illegal alien groups and attorneys get involved to prevent any deportation.

But here’s the core reason for my post. In 2005 DHS said 850 people from countries of “special interest” were apprehended crossing our southern border. In 2006 DHS reported between 2001 and 2005 that 45,000 OTMs from countries on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terror (SST) or from countries that protected terrorist organizations and their members were released into America’s general public. This was done even though immigration officers could not confirm their identity. Remember, these are people that were caught, which represents only one out of ten that actually cross the border. That means that approximately 400,000 illegal aliens from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, whose identities could not be verified and who could be working for terrorist groups, are freely moving about the country.

The FBI has testified numerous times that since it’s easy to enter the U.S. illegally without detection, terrorist groups believe that operationally there are no reasons to get visas, etc. to gain legal entry. Also, there’s an increase in the number of illegal aliens from countries with al Qaeda connections that are changing their identities to appear Hispanic by dropping their Islamic surnames. Posing as Hispanics they blend in with the mass of illegal aliens crossing the border. Again, DHS doesn’t have any idea how many potential terrorists have entered the country using this tactic.

Professional smugglers, called “coyotes” and MS-13, a notorious Salvadorian criminal gang that has infiltrated all of our lower 48 states, use their pipelines to smuggle Middle Eastern and Asian illegals into the U.S. for $10,000 to $20,000 per person with no questions asked. A coyote caught with his “cargo” recently admitted that none of the men he has transported over the past six years was looking for a job or to “help his family.”

Do the math. There are roughly 15 to 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. and ten percent of those are OTMs. Any percentage of the OTMs that are from hostile countries constitutes hundreds of thousands. It’s the barn door analogy with frightening, staggering safety implications. Unless we can devise a system for rooting out the hostiles who have infiltrated our country, we’re in for a grim day ahead. I shook my head in disbelief when I heard two members of the new administration’s transition team say granting amnesty to all illegal aliens will be a priority. And amnesty my friends, also includes the terrorists!