Under a policy known as "controlled flow", the governments of Panama and Costa Rica grease the skids to get them smoothly and safely to Nicaragua, Honduras, and Mexico, where organized smugglers can take over again, CIS is told. By Todd Bensman as originally published by the Center for Immigration Studies on December 27, 2018 YAVIZA, DARIEN PROVINCE, Panama — Out of an … [Read more...] about Video Report: Panama and Costa Rica Doing Smugglers’ Work with “Controlled Flow” Policy
Securing America's Borders
Interview with an Iranian Migrant in Costa Rica En Route to the U.S. Border
Four Iranian migrants found in Costa Rica en route to the U.S. southern border talk about their long journey, travel methods and hopes for U.S. asylum. But might they be part of Iranian intelligence or worse, Hezbollah operatives? By Todd Bensman as originally published December 20, 2018 by the Center for Immigration Studies GOLFITO, Costa Rica — Iranian citizen Sina Zandi … [Read more...] about Interview with an Iranian Migrant in Costa Rica En Route to the U.S. Border
An Interview with a Bangladeshi in Costa Rica en Route to the U.S. Southwest Border
Whether 29-year-old Omar Farouk, 29, is hiding a forbidden past and present as a terrorist operative is a question for American homeland security officers to answer when he finally reaches the American southern border in a month or two. I found him in a Costa Rican immigration processing center, after he crossed in from Panama and, before that, from Brazil and Colombia. He is from Bangladesh, … [Read more...] about An Interview with a Bangladeshi in Costa Rica en Route to the U.S. Southwest Border
Video Report: How Migrants from Countries of Terror Concern Travel Through Central America
Thousands of non-Spanish-speaking migrants, known in U.S. homeland security circles as "special interest aliens", from Muslim-majority countries like Iran and Afghanistan cross through Panama once they depart initial landing zones in South America. Here's how the get the U.S. southern border, the easy and the hard way. By Todd Bensman as originally published December 18, 2019 by the Center for … [Read more...] about Video Report: How Migrants from Countries of Terror Concern Travel Through Central America
A Rare Interview with a Pakistani Migrant in Costa Rica en Route to the U.S. Border
Jawad insists he's no terrorist, and that may be true. But American homeland security authorities at the U.S. border won't want to take him strictly at his word, nor should they. Whether Jawad and his friend were with the Pakistani Taliban, against them, or indifferent to them is a question that American law enforcement intelligence officers on the U.S. border will almost certainly want to get … [Read more...] about A Rare Interview with a Pakistani Migrant in Costa Rica en Route to the U.S. Border
Four U.S.-Bound Iranian Migrants Underline National Security Concerns about Migration from Special Interest Countries
(As published by the Center for Immigration Studies) By Todd Bensman on December 13, 2018 GOLFITO, Costa Rica — The four Iranians told me they first saw me hundreds of miles south, in a Panamanian migration camp 15 miles off the main road, at the end of a dirt track in the Darien jungle. The one who spoke some English told me they had been … [Read more...] about Four U.S.-Bound Iranian Migrants Underline National Security Concerns about Migration from Special Interest Countries
Video: How America Filters Potential Terrorists in Central America
By Todd Bensman PASO CANOAS, Costa Rica – At least every other day, the long arm of America's counterterrorism effort reaches out and touches this essentially lawless, smuggler-ridden town on the Panama-Costa Rica border According to an agreement between Panama and Costa Rica, busloads of northward-moving migrants that American homeland security authorities know as "special interest … [Read more...] about Video: How America Filters Potential Terrorists in Central America
Four U.S.-Bound Iranian Migrants Underline National Security Concerns about Migration from Special Interest Countries
Maybe they'll achieve their asylum claims. But whatever happens, they're all in for serious interrogations once they reach the American border; At issue for American intelligence personnel who will flock to whatever detention center they're in, of course, will be determining whether they are Iranian intelligence agents, members of Hezbollah's notorious Unit 910, or merely victims of a harsh … [Read more...] about Four U.S.-Bound Iranian Migrants Underline National Security Concerns about Migration from Special Interest Countries
VIDEO Report: How America Uses Bio-metrics to Filter Potential Terrorists in Distant Lands
American homeland security authorities have long been wary about unidentified migrants who emigrate from Muslim-majority countries where Islamist terrorist organizations operate. So the U.S. has provided equipment and training to Panama, Costa Rica and other Central American countries to collect fingerprints, facial-recognition photos and retinal eye scans. By Todd Bensman as originally … [Read more...] about VIDEO Report: How America Uses Bio-metrics to Filter Potential Terrorists in Distant Lands
More than 100 migrants on terror watch lists caught at U.S. southern border or enroute 2012-2017 – New Center for Immigration Studies Report
On several occasions in October 2018, President Donald Trump and some administration officials suggested that migrants from Middle Eastern countries might have traveled among the thousands of Hondurans in a U.S.-bound column. Later, the president stated he had "very good information" that Middle Eastern migrants had been traveling through Latin America for a number of years, independently of … [Read more...] about More than 100 migrants on terror watch lists caught at U.S. southern border or enroute 2012-2017 – New Center for Immigration Studies Report