Usually the immigration debate revolves around the issues of economics, respect for law, social services, civil liberties, and the like as armies of illegal Mexicans slip across the border looking for work and a better life.
But there is another, far darker wrinkle:
- It's no secret that people sneak into the United States from Mexico every day. But what has been kept under wraps is exactly who is coming in. NBC4's Chuck Henry went deep in the Arizona desert to find out. [video]
It's a place that used to go by the name "Cocaine Alley" because of all the drugs that were smuggled through. But now some officials are more concerned about human smuggling, specifically illegal entry at the border by individuals who are not actually from Mexico. They're called "Special Interest Aliens," because they're coming from countries believed to be a threat.
"People are coming here with bad intentions. I know of 10 that have been detained at my station alone," said a Border Patrol agent whose identity has been withheld at his request. He said this is something that agents have been told not to talk about.
"We know for a fact that people coming from the Middle East are now coming into Mexico and spending a year, even two years in Mexico, to learn how to speak Spanish," the Border Patrol agent told NBC4.
"The key is to pass yourself off as a Mexican," said retired Army Colonel Ben Anderson. He has been following what he calls the terrorist trail and connecting the dots on his website. He said it's a journey that begins on the other side of the world.
"You come out of Cairo International and you go either to England or Madrid. From there, you either go to Paraguay or Brazil. There is a huge infrastructure there waiting for you to learn how to speak Spanish. You're then going to transition your way up through Latin America ... into Mexico," Anderson said.
...."There are gaps of 50 to 60 miles that I know of that are completely wide open, " the Border Patrol agent told NBC4.
"Any American that thinks we have security on our southern border is mistaken, " said California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.
Not even members of Congress know exactly how many special interest persons have entered or have been detained at the border. Congressman Rohrabacher told NBC4, "They're going to try and make it here in the safest possible path."
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