The national security significance of this operation is not explained in media reporting, that Mama Africa, long-targeted Nicaraguan smuggler based in Costa Rica, was finally busted after years of American pursuit. She specialized in moving “special-interest aliens” from terror-prone nations like Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. By Todd Bensman as … [Read more...] about Major Smuggler of Immigrants from Mideast, Africa, etc. Arrested in Costa Rica
Securing U.S. Borders
On the Border: Update on the Crowd-Funded Wall in New Mexico; More Construction and Controversy on the Way
What the We Build the Wall people wrought with their half-mile fence, aside from the claim that it cut off some 20 cartel smuggling pathways, is a hard symbolic proof of concept. This has motivated American donors and workers, believing they know what is right for the nation, to defeat Washington stalemate and obstructionist "open-borders left" and show a wall can be built better, … [Read more...] about On the Border: Update on the Crowd-Funded Wall in New Mexico; More Construction and Controversy on the Way
On the Ground in Juarez, Mexico: Trump “Remain in Mexico” policy working as UN buses load up Central Americans for rides home. But for how long?
In Juarez, confirmation that Trump's Remain in Mexico policy is driving asylum claimant decisions to return home. In two Juarez city shelters, a Honduran mother of two children, a young single Honduran woman, and a young single man from Guatemalan say they're going home rather than to lose the prospect of living illegally in the United States. CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – The New York Times … [Read more...] about On the Ground in Juarez, Mexico: Trump “Remain in Mexico” policy working as UN buses load up Central Americans for rides home. But for how long?
The Next Influx: Africans
Like the proverbial "bulge in the belly of the snake," unusually high numbers of non-Latino migrants, obviously not from Central America, are now reportedly passing from Colombia through Panama on their way to the U.S. southern border. Their numbers range to the tens of thousands, whose vanguards we have already seen at the U.S. Southwest Border in recent months: Cameroonians, Ghanaians, … [Read more...] about The Next Influx: Africans
Assessing the Report of Four ISIS Terrorist Suspects Caught in Nicaragua
One of the four is said to be a convicted murderer in Iraq serving a life sentence. The others? We'll have to wait for an investigation to run its course and, once it does, the public may well never be told of the outcome for a very wrong and unfortunate reason: If past experience indicates future behavior, this is a story that major American news media with the biggest audience shares are going … [Read more...] about Assessing the Report of Four ISIS Terrorist Suspects Caught in Nicaragua
Enhanced Security Vetting Required Now for Congolese Immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico Border
An ISIS franchise in the Democratic Republic of Congo and rampaging militias engaged in massacres, kidnapping, and torture warrants enhanced vetting of hundreds of Congolese young men crossing the U.S. southern border. Government must pause from the chaos of the Central American influx and ensure that migrants from Central Africa are not as quickly released into the interior. Greater … [Read more...] about Enhanced Security Vetting Required Now for Congolese Immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico Border
What To Make of a Report that ISIS Planned to Breach U.S.-Mexico Border? An interview with the author
Whatever becomes of the inevitable investigation or ISIS captive Abu Henricki of Canada, the published report about what he said should serve as a wake-up call to American decision-makers and voters, regardless of partisan sentiment, to look at the current border crisis as about much more than Central Americans with children. By Todd Bensman, originally published by the Center … [Read more...] about What To Make of a Report that ISIS Planned to Breach U.S.-Mexico Border? An interview with the author
Analysis: Why The Mexican Military’s Mission to the Guatemala-Mexico Border May Not Work Well
The Mexican troops to be deployed to the Guatemala border are going to need naval support on the Pacific Ocean, endurance support for long-range reconnaissance in the Petén Jungle of northeastern Guatemala. They'll need Guatemala's intelligence on who's moving where, when. They'll need a willingness to use non-lethal force such as tear gas, as the Americas did in January at the Tijuana, Mexico, … [Read more...] about Analysis: Why The Mexican Military’s Mission to the Guatemala-Mexico Border May Not Work Well
How Central American Migrants Pay for Kids to Get Over the Border; An Interview on the Front Line
Along with hundreds of thousands of Central American economic migrants exploiting a border-crossing loophole for children came unverified stories, rumors really, that some of the children didn't belong to the adults claiming them, that they were being "recycled," or even kidnapped for the crossing. Here's what's really going on. By Todd Bensman originally published by the Center … [Read more...] about How Central American Migrants Pay for Kids to Get Over the Border; An Interview on the Front Line
Why the Case of Jordanian-Mexican Smuggler Who Transported Yemenis over the Texas Border Matters
Federal prosecutors and law enforcement leaders held a press conference in San Antonio to announce a plea deal with a human smuggler who transported Yemenis over the Texas border, reportedly some with terrorism ties. I thought that what these leaders had to say more generally about the terror infiltration threat at the border was more significant than the plea deal, so I opened the spigot and … [Read more...] about Why the Case of Jordanian-Mexican Smuggler Who Transported Yemenis over the Texas Border Matters