PHOENIX – The arrests of six Middle
Eastern men caught entering the United States illegally from Mexico two
years ago set off alarm in border states and in some right-wing blogs
and other media outlets.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey called it a matter of national
security and invoked the Islamic State group in a statement calling for
stepped-up border security in response to the arrests. Conservative
publications like the Washington Examiner reported on the men from
"Middle East terror hotbeds," while Fox News questioned whether "Islamic
State militants could be probing security."
Now, documents obtained by The Associated Press through
a public records request reveal the men were fleeing violence and
persecution in their homelands and were cleared of any terrorism ties.
They also were physically and verbally abused by two Mexican smugglers
with a history of crossing the border illegally and went days without
food and water, the records show.
The case highlights the highly politicized nature of
the U.S.-Mexico border as hysteria sometimes overtakes facts in an era
where President Donald Trump, during his campaign, labeled Mexican
immigrants rapists and criminals. Some blogs incorrectly reported the
men were released. Others tied them to the Islamic State.
In fact, the men cooperated with the government, and
four have been deported. The remaining two are in removal proceedings,
according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Yasmeen
Pitts O'Keefe.
The five men from Pakistan and one from Afghanistan
were arrested at a time when the Islamic State group was committing some
of its bloodiest acts, just days after coordinated bombings and
shootings in Paris heightened fears about attacks in the U.S.
The arrests also came around the same time as two
Syrian families with children presented themselves at the border seeking
asylum. The families were Christian and fleeing persecution. Still, the
incident prompted a tweet from Trump that said, "Eight Syrians were
just caught on the southern border trying to get into the U.S. ISIS
maybe? I told you so. WE NEED A BIG & BEAUTIFUL WALL!"
But none of the cases had any ties to terrorism.
Government officials have long denied there have been
any arrests of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border with ties to the
Islamic State, and private security analysts agree.
Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical analysis for
Texas-based intelligence firm Stratfor, said he knows of no instances of
terrorists sneaking into the U.S. through the southern border.
He says it's much more likely a terrorist would use the
Canadian border to sneak into the country, as Ahmed Ressam did in 1999.
Ressam planned to bomb the Los Angeles airport and used false documents
to enter the U.S. from Canada. Border authorities caught him with a car
full of explosives.
Stewart added it's highly unlikely the Mexican cartels,
which control smuggling corridors, would help a terrorist enter the
United States.
"The last thing they want is to be labeled as
narco-terrorists. That's just terrible for business," Stewart said. "I'm
honestly much more concerned about meth, fentanyl and heroin than I am
of Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State coming across."
Despite most border crossers being from Latin America, a
small number come from far-away places like China, India, Pakistan and
Afghanistan.
Investigative files obtained by the AP show the Middle Eastern men completed a long and costly journey to America.
The Afghan man told Border Patrol agents he left his
home seven months earlier and traveled through at least 10 countries
before making it to the U.S. He was detained for weeks in Honduras,
Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico and paid nearly $15,000 in smuggling fees
along the way.
Once the men reached the U.S. border, the smugglers
told them crossing illegally into Arizona would be a matter of a few
easy hours.
But their trip took several days in treacherous conditions.
The men spent three or four days walking through the
desert. They ran out of water on the first night and food on the second,
and then trekked through mountains near the border in snow and rain.
The men said they had no jackets.
They said the smugglers verbally accosted them and
threw rocks at them if they walked too slowly. The Afghan man said one
of the smugglers punched him in the chest. When one man injured his
ankle, a smuggler said "Bye-bye" and kept walking. Another man who
couldn't keep up said he paid the smugglers more to slow down.
The men were arrested in November 2015 after triggering
a Border Patrol sensor about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of the
border.
The arrests were first reported by right-wing blogs,
then other news organizations. Three days after the Middle Eastern men
were taken into custody, Ducey issued a statement saying their arrests
were troubling, "especially in light of new threats on the United States
from ISIS in a video released in just the last 24 hours."
But the FBI had already cleared the men, finding they had no ties to terrorism, according to the documents.
When asked about the governor's tweet, Ducey's
spokesman issued a statement that touted the Republican's border efforts
but did not address the issue of invoking the Islamic State when the
men had no terrorism ties.
"The governor continues to put public safety at the forefront," spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said.
The men were interviewed separately, and all told
authorities about abuses at the hands of the two Mexican smugglers. They
became witnesses in the case against Ernesto Dorame-Gonzalez and Martin
Lopez-Alvarado, who had committed prior immigration offenses and
pleaded guilty to smuggling charges.
"We find smugglers are more interested in treating
people as a commodity instead of human beings," said Stephanie Dixon, a
spokeswoman with the Border Patrol's Tucson sector. "Many people are
being lied to by smugglers, which leads to deaths and illnesses, for the
sole purpose of criminal profiting."