Guest Opinion
Arizona: a 'Terrorist Corridor?'
By Jon Kyl, U.S. Senator
August 27, 2004
A major threat to homeland security that has lurked uneasily in the
back of America's public consciousness burst into the news last month
when the FBI issued a bulletin to the Mexican media and border -- area
law enforcement to be on the lookout for a suspected al Qaeda terror
cell leader who might be trying to sneak into the United States along
immigrant smuggling routes.
I'm sure many people had the same reaction I did to the news about
"armed and dangerous" terrorism suspect Adnan G. El Shukrijumah: an
aggravated lack of surprise. After all, how could our notoriously porous
border not be a conduit for terrorists? Why wouldn't those seeking to
attack America be tempted to join the hundreds of thousands already
illegally entering from Mexico?
Money talks if you're trying to cross the border, and if there's one
thing we've learned from the accounts of the 19 hijackers of September
11th, it's that they are well financed.
Recent news reports focusing on border security concerns are a welcome
development for those of us who have been pushing the issue for years.
Watchdog groups have sneaked fake weapons of mass destruction over the
border to illustrate America's vulnerability. A Tucson TV station has
filmed evidence collected by a rancher who lives near the border,
including Muslim prayer blankets and diaries written in Arabic.
The Border Patrol has released data, excerpted nearby, on how many
"Other Than Mexican" (OTM) foreign nationals were apprehended in just a
nine-month period on the southern border. It's a genuinely frightening
list, particularly when you remember that despite their best efforts,
the agents catch fewer migrants than they miss.
Most of these people are typical illegal aliens in search of freedom,
economic opportunity and a better way of life. But they're still
breaking the law. And if even a tiny fraction are terrorists, we now
know the potential for destructive attacks can be enormous.
That's why, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee
on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, and a member of the
Subcommittee on Immigration, I have worked hard to educate senators from
states that don't share our "front line" problems about this reality. We
have provided significant increases in personnel and resources,
including raising the Border Patrol force from 4,000 in 1996 to around
11,000 today, adding Customs inspectors, and providing "force
multipliers" like lighting projects, night-vision goggles and
truck-sized X-ray machines. I also helped secure $2.3 million for the
Nogales Cyberport project, a collaborative federal, state, and local
effort to bring state-of-the-art infrastructure to the Mariposa Port of
entry in Nogales.
Much more needs to be done. In March of last year, I chaired a hearing
on the need for infrastructure and technology improvements at the
border. The following day, Senator John McCain and I brought Department
of Homeland Security Undersecretary for Border and Transportation
Security Asa Hutchinson on a tour of southern Arizona. We visited the
busy ports of entry at San Luis and Nogales, the vast lands of the
Tohono O'odham Nation and National Park Service that are heavily
traversed by illegal immigrants and drug smugglers, as well as the
expansive property of a cattle rancher whose land has been virtually
overrun. As a result of the trip, Secretary Hutchinson has announced
additional resources and policy changes to address the problem.
Meanwhile, liberal groups have raised their usual objections of
"fear-mongering" and, in the words of one member of Congress, "using
terrorism ... to divide the community." One wonders what they will
say if a future attack is traced back to someone who came over the
border illegally.
