WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., says that at least ten fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have been apprehended while attempting to enter the southern U.S. border.
The California Republican claims that “at least ten ISIS fighters have been caught coming across the Mexican border in Texas,” in a conversation with Fox News on Tuesday. Hunter says that the Islamic terrorists are slipping into the U.S. through the porous southern border as several have already been captured.
“There’s nobody talking about it,” Rep. Hunter told Fox. “If you really want to protect Americans from ISIS, you secure the southern border. It’s that simple…They caught them at the border, therefore we know that ISIS is coming across the border. If they catch five or ten of them then you know there’s going to be dozens more that did not get caught by the border patrol.”
In August, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, warned that the open border posed an “immediate threat” for terrorist activity infiltrating the country. The government watchdog group, Judicial Watch, said ISIS terrorists were “planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle born [sic] improvised explosive devices.”
Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said that 1,933-mile southern border with Mexico is the obvious entry point for Islamic State terrorists. He says that information regarding the capture of Islamic State terrorists crossing the border comes directly from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“ISIS doesn’t have a navy, they don’t have an air force, they don’t have nuclear weapons. The only way that ISIS is going to harm Americans is by coming through the southern border – which they already have,” he added.
“They aren’t flying B-1 bombers, bombing American cities,” said Hunter. “But they are going to be bombing American cities coming across from Mexico…All you have to do is ask the border patrol.” |