Transnational gangs could “unwittingly” smuggle terrorists into the United States, a top official at the Department of Homeland Security told lawmakers on Thursday.
“The question is: are there low-level individuals in these organizations who unwittingly may be smuggling an individual from one of these countries who is in fact a terrorist?” DHS deputy secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said to a Senate Homeland Security Committee panel. “And we are very focused on that.”
That acknowledgement came as Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson, who chairs the committee, argued that the potential for terrorists to enter the southern border poses the greatest danger of any point-of-entry to the country. But Mayorkas added that drug cartels, as a matter of policy, aren’t engaged in such trafficking.
“We have no evidence to suggest that they are willing participants in the smuggling of individuals who are members of terrorist organizations,” he said. “In fact, we have quite the opposite — that they wish no part in the overt participation in the smuggling of terrorists.”
Border Patrol and other law enforcement have detained several people suspected to be affiliated with terrorist groups in recent years, though none with apparent ties to the Islamic State. “We have not observed any increasing concern, but that does not suggest that we don’t have an increase in vigilance,” Mayorkas said.
