Intelligence: Middle Easterners on U.S.-Mexico Border

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz today hosted members of the U.S. House Select Committee on Homeland Security in the Rio Grande Valley to hear from front line law enforcement officers about the growing danger of terrorists breaching the southern border of the United States, aided in part by the government policy of releasing illegal immigrants who are “Other than Mexican,” or “OTMs” into the general population of the United States.

Members of the House of Representatives hosted by Ortiz today included Texas Reps. Jim Turner, Ranking Member of the U.S. House Select Committee on Homeland Security, and Sheila Jackson Lee, a member of both the Select Committee on Homeland Security and the House Judiciary Committee.

Ortiz has been sounding the alarm about this matter since late July. In early August, Ortiz and Congressman Henry Bonilla (R-TX) sent a letter to President George W. Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge protesting the policy and asking a series of pointed questions. There has been no response to the letter.

Ortiz’ statement follows:

"The security of our borders is the most bi-partisan of issues … the co-chairs of the House Border Caucus, my colleague Henry Bonilla and myself, first raised the issue with the President earlier in August. This is an American issue, we all have a stake in this.

As a former sheriff, I have a unique appreciation of law enforcement matters, and the lawmen that uphold this nation’s laws. Imagine the look on my face when these lawmen began coming to me to tell me these facts: We have been releasing the illegal immigrants we’ve been catching into border communities, and we could have let the bad guys in with them.

Our SW border is profoundly unsecured … and the policies of the Department of Homeland Security have made the border communities - and the nation - more vulnerable at a dangerous time. When I first began hearing from our border security officers in the early summer, I was nauseated, skeptical, and frightened for my constituents in a whole new way … and I did what cops always do - I started investigating.

What is embarrassingly - terrifyingly - clear is this: we do not now have the space to hold illegal immigrants when we catch them, so we give them a “notice to appear” - a letter allowing them to travel anywhere in the U.S. while they await a deportation hearing. Now, if you come in illegally in the first place, are you really going to come back for your deportation hearing?

Understand that we are not talking about illegal immigrants we have not caught - we don’t know who we haven’t caught…. What we are talking about here today is entirely about people we have caught and then released. For a cop, it’s a special sin to have caught people breaking the law … then let them go. We have been hearing reports, both from law enforcement and in news reports, that al Queda is now operating in Central America.

Now that information is confirmed … we know from El Salvadoran law enforcement that al Queda is meeting with violent gang leaders in El Salvador. We have also had reports that Middle Easterners have been sighted on the banks of the Rio Grande. This would be a dangerous, new development of international criminal enterprises to expand the al Queda threat to non-Islamic forces, and it should be examined more fully by law enforcement and intelligence forces.

Today we have talked to the federal officials to help us understand the enormity of the problem, and to see what it is they need. Currently, our OTM policy is nothing more than a conduit for terrorists … it is a flawed system … it is profoundly wrong and needs to be corrected. Only after the policy has ended, can we begin to sort out exactly how much danger people and places inside the U.S. face as a result of this policy, and this large abdication of responsibility for border security.

The terrifying fact of this scandal is the inattention to the business of security at our borders, while Americans die in Afghanistan and Iraq in the “war on terror.” The U.S. is spending billions upon billions to prosecute the “war on terror,” but have treated this particular security breach with almost criminal neglect.

By issuing travel papers to OMTs - we are welcoming the lawbreakers we catch at the border, then providing them a driver to the bus station … all on the skeptical hope they will return for a deportation hearing. In addition to providing free passage to illegals from “Special Interest” countries, the agents drive these OTMs to their next step of legal passage in the U.S. leave their post open on the border … making it all the more unprotected.

We won’t know the extent of this until we investigate the next terrorist attack. Those of us here, the Members of Congress, are concerned for 3 basic reasons:

1. Our constituents, family and friends live here in Texas, where these folks are being released,
2. Our offices in DC are across the street from a central target for terrorists,
3. And our nation remains at risk from terrorists … and even still our gov’t policies work to - however unwillingly - let terrorists in all over again.

We specifically have a list of countries that are of “special interest” to the U.S. We’re being told that we are getting OTMs from countries of “special interest” at a rate of 15-30 at a time. We’ve also heard that bad guys are recruiting Brazilians with passports to take them to U.S., who then look for BP agents to get processed … that we’re averaging 1,000-1,500 OTM releases like this a month … they (OTMs) are taken to the bus station for travel.

There are some things we can offer as solutions immediately:

• Change the OTM policy immediately, then quantify how much damage has been done
• We need more beds to house those we detain
• Bring in civilians to help BP with the clerical work they now have to do so they can be out there doing what they do best, protecting America’s borders."