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  • 2014-10-12 (xsd:date)
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  • Is ISIS on the U.S.-Mexican Border? (en)
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  • While ISIS exploded across global headlines as a growing threat in the Middle East in 2014, so too did American fears that agents of the Islamic State would silently filter through U.S. borders and quietly live amongst Americans while waiting to strike. Rumors of ISIS members slipping through southern borders escalated significantly on 7 October 2014 when U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren that as many as ten ISIS militants had been apprehended at southern crossings. Van Susteren pressed Hunter after he stated that ISIS members had been caught attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, following a broader statement by the Congressman on concern for border security. Hunter replied by saying: Van Susteren questioned Hunter on why he specifically believed ten ISIS members had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and were caught, to which he replied that Border Patrol had confirmed the information to him. Hunter stated that Border Patrol agents caught those ISIS insurgents but added that there's going to be dozens more that did not get caught by the Border Patrol. Hunter's claims seemed to fall directly in line with several made by the disreputable Judicial Watch site, a muckraking organization run by political activist Larry Klayman (who issued a press release in October 2014 announcing he was petitioning several federal agencies to deport President Obama, and who has been barred for life by multiple judges for his repetitive misuse of the court system). Since August 2014, Judicial Watch has been claiming that the U.S.-Mexico border is vulnerable to ISIS, stating in a bulletin on 10 October 2014 that: In the original bulletin issued by Judicial Watch on 31 August 2014, the site claimed an attack by ISIS due to border porosity was imminent. The report heavily implied the anniversary of the September 11 attacks as a potential attack date and claimed that: The claims by Judicial Watch of an imminent attack coming very soon were made on 31 August 2014, and Hunter's statements came more than a month later. No such attack or confirmed attempt to cross the border by members of ISIS occurred in the intervening weeks between the bulletin and Hunter's appearance on Fox News to substantiate beliefs that ISIS either had crossed or had intended to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. The inclusion in the rumor of an in the last 36 hours modifier created an impression of urgency without specifying when the event itself occurred (and enabled the rumor to spread ad infinitum.) On 8 October 2014, a senior spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security responded to Hunter's claim about ISIS fighters captured by Border Patrol: No reports of any arrests matching the claims made by Hunter or Judicial Watch materialized in the time the rumor has been circulating, and it seems safe to say at this remove that the 36-hour timeframe has come and gone without incident. Judicial Watch similarly claimed in an April 2015 article that ISIS is operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas, in an area known as 'Anapra' situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Several federal law agencies involved with border security said the report was unverified and that it was unlikely ISIS is in Anapra or Juarez, and Ariel Moutsatsos-Morales, Mexico's minister for press and public affairs, also disclaimed the report: Moreover, El Paso Congressman Beto O'Rourke debunked this rumor on Facebook: (en)
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