U.S. officials are trying to establish closer cooperation with various Latin American nations to combat an increase in the number of illegal migrants from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East attempting to sneak into the United States.
Between October 2015 and May 2016, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), detained 5,350 African and Asian migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to Reuters.
The apprehensions of illegals from Africa and Asia during that period marks an increase from those that took place in all of 2015 (4,261) and 2014 (1,831).
In its report, Reuters highlighted attempted entries into the U.S. by individuals from Pakistan, Syria, and Afghanistan, which the U.S. considers to be terrorism-linked countries.
Most countries considered by the U.S. government to be linked to terrorism are located in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. American border authorities are trying to stop the illegal migrants at the Mexico border with Guatemala, before they reach the United States.
Reuters reports:
U.S. agents deployed to an immigration facility on Mexico’s southern border have vetted the more than 640 migrants from countries outside the Americas who have been detained at the center since October 2015, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents reviewed by Reuters…
The U.S. agents’ findings come as Mexican immigration data show 6,342 Asian, African and Middle Eastern migrants were apprehended trying to enter Mexico in the first six months of this year. That was up from 4,261 in all of 2015, and 1,831 in 2014.
U.S. border apprehensions point to the same trend. Between October 2015 and May 2016, U.S. agents apprehended 5,350 African and Asian migrants at the U.S. Southwest border. That’s up from 6,126 in all of fiscal year 2015 and 4,172 in all of fiscal year 2014.
“The reality is that the vast majority of the people that Mexico encounters that are extra-continental will eventually end up on our border,” an unnamed official from CBP, told Reuters.
The Reuters report came soon after Central American authorities dismantled a human trafficking network dedicated to smuggling illegal migrants into the United States from terror-linked countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Moreover, the top American military official in Latin America and the Caribbean, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) chief Navy Adm. Kurt W. Tidd, recently warned that there are various networks in his area of responsibility that specialize in trafficking illegals into the United States from countries affiliated with terrorism.
He noted that both the Shiite Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, and the Sunni Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) are known to operate in the region.
Reuters points out:
Washington is seeking closer coordination with several Latin American countries to tackle a jump in migrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East who it believes are trying to reach the United States from the south on an arduous route by plane, boat and through jungle on foot…
The migrants often fly to Brazil, obtain fake passports there, and are smuggled to Panama before heading through Central America to Mexico’s porous southern border, according to transcripts of 14 interviews conducted at the center and other internal briefing documents seen by Reuters…
U.S. concerns about potential security risks from migrants using the unusual and circuitous southern route have been growing in recent years, following a string of Islamic State-inspired attacks in the West and the surge in Syrian refugees fleeing that country’s civil war.
Breitbart Texas previously released leaked documents from CBP showing that hundreds of individuals from 75 countries outside the Americas, including some compromised by terrorist organizations, were attempting to sneak into the United States through the southern border.
Shame on the cheering Polish crowds who support a Pope who orders them to flood their country with illegal alien Muslim invaders, rapists, freeloaders and potential jihadists. And tells them that Islam’s war on the West has nothing to do with religion.
Earlier during a manhunt, the shopping centre in the town had been evacuated. Police have since dismissed claims the individual had links to Islamic groups.(Sure they did, nothing to with Islam, right?)
Sputnik News The shopping mall in the German northwestern city of Bremen was evacuated on Wednesday after the 19-year-old MUSLIM entered it with a large backpack and yelled “I’ll blow you up.”
Police said that the Algerian MUSLIM man had made statements sympathizing with the Munich MUSLIM gunman and MUSLIM extremists of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group. The comments were reportedly made while the MUSLIM man was in custody last weekend for multiple thefts. However, police said that they did not have any evidence proving that the MUSLIM man was jihadist inspired(Give me a break, they are ALL jihadist inspired)
After Sunday night’s ISIS-related suicide bombing in Ansbach, Germany, a number of politicians are insisting that the deportation of rejected asylum-seekers must be expedited to ensure that potentially dangerous individuals leave the country as soon as possible.
The bomber who detonated an explosive-packed rucksack outside a wine bar in the Bavarian city of Ansbach was a 27-year-old Syrian migrant named Mohammad Daleel who had been refused permission to stay in Germany and was due to be deported. Investigators found that Daleel, who injured 15 people in the blast, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer declared that Germany needs a better system ofverification of the status of migrants who are seeking asylum or who have been denied permission to stay. “We need to know who is in the country,” he said.
Armin Schuster, homeland security expert in the Bundestag and a member of the Christian Democrat party (CDU), warned that the country must carry out swifterdeportations of rejected asylum-seekers. We need a “farewell culture,” Schuster said, referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s announcement last year that Germany would foster a “welcoming culture” for migrants.
A domestic policy spokesman for the Social Democrats (SPD), Burkhard Lischka, also criticized the present state of law enforcement, urging that “asylum seekers or refugees who are rejected have to leave Germany.”
On Tuesday, Schuster told the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper that Germany had failed to enforce the deportation of rejected asylum seekers. Schuster complained that deportations were often mandated but not carried out and noted that some 200,000 failed asylum seekers due for deportation were still in the country.
Failure to uphold immigration laws ends up giving migrants the impression that “they can get away with anything,” Schuster said.
Sunday’s suicide bombing was the latest in a spate of recent terror attacks taking place across Germany, including assaults in Würzburg, Munich and Reutlingen. The four attacks in just a week included three by Muslim asylum-seekers and two claimed by the Islamic State group
According to investigators, the perpetrator of Sunday’s attack, Mohammad Daleel, had vowed to take “revenge against Germans for obstructing Islam.”
Bavarian authorities said that Daleel had received his expulsion orders nearly two weeks before his attack and deportation was expected to have taken place within 30 days. Though the man was denied asylum in 2015, he stayed on in Germany under a special category called “Duldung,” meaning that his presence would be tolerated.
Part of the problem, Schuster said, stems from the fact that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees is overwhelmed with work, resulting in the inability to confirm the accuracy of refugees’ countries of origin. Misidentified migrants may often stay in the country even after they have been slated for deportation, he said.
In 2015, Germany received more than 2 million migrants, an increase of 700,000 over the previous year, according to official data. Registered asylum seekers were estimated to exceed 1 million.
The ISIS terrorists who carried out the France church attack forced an elderly parish priest to kneel before filming themselves slitting his throat, it has emerged.
Father Jacques Hamel, 85, was made to get to his knees before he was brutally butchered at the Church of the Gambetta in Normandy today, says a nun who escaped the attack.
His two murderers - one of whom has been named as 19-year-old Adel Kermiche - captured the slaying on a mobile phone, according to Sister Danielle, who was one of several worshippers taken hostage during morning mass.
They then performed a 'sermon' around the altar in Arabic - as armed cops rushed to the scene and terrified members of the congregation fled for their lives.
Before his death, Father Hamel courageously tried to defend his parishioners, says the distraught nun, who raised the alarm after fleeing the church.
"They [the terrorists] forced him to kneel and he tried to defend himself and that is how the drama started," she told RMC radio this afternoon.
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Father Hamel's murderers captured the sickening assault on video, says a nun who was held hostage
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the shocking attack
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A police officer stands next to the body of one of the terrorists after he was shot dead
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Speaking to BFM TV, she added that the two men 'recorded themselves' carrying out the murder and did 'a sort of sermon around the altar in Arabic'.
"It's a horror," she said of the attack, which ended in the knifemen being shot dead by police after running out of the church shouting 'Allahu Akbar'.
Sister Danielle said she fled the parish church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near the northern city of Rouen, as one of the terrorists was slitting the priest's throat.
She then raised the alarm by stopping a passing motorist.
Describing the gruesome attack, the nun said: “Everyone was saying, ‘Just stop, you don’t understand what you are doing.' But it had no effect.
"They forced us to get on our knees and he [Father Hamel] wanted to defend us. That's when the violence started.
Sky News
Four worshippers were taken hostage - one of whom is in a serious condition in hospital
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REUTERS
Police arrest a man during a raid after the church slaying
“Me, I realised the moment he started attacking Jacques, when he put him on his knees and almost made him fall over.
“It was then that I was able to escape. I got out quickly. They were busy attacking him with the knife, so they didn't see me leaving.
“Everybody screamed. They recorded what they were doing. It was like a prayer, a sermon at the altar in Arabic."
The assailants, who were both on a terrorist watch-list, were shot dead by balaclava-wearing BRI police commandos after sprinting out of the church.
Witnesses say they heard the men scream 'Allahu Akbar' as they came out of the building. One was described as bearded and wearing a Muslim skullcap.
REUTERS
The arrest was made shortly after the two hostage-takers were killed by cops
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An officer was pictured walking the detainee to a police car, with fabric over his head
REUTERS
Members of the French special police forces are seen during the raid
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Bomb disposal units were later sent into the church to check for explosives.
This afternoon, French police arrested a teenager, known only as 'HB', in connection with the attack after raiding his home in the town following the church rampage.
Photos of the arrest show the 17-year-old boy - believed to be related to one of the suspects - being guided to a police car, with a piece of black fabric over his head.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the shocking attack, which saw four people taken hostage - one of whom is fighting for their life in hospital.
These hostages, who are yet to be identified, were also forced to kneel at the altar by their captors, before one of them - believed to be a second nun - was gravely injured.
Parish priest Jacques Hamel was forced to kneel before he was murdered, it has emerged
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A woman holds her head in her hands as she mourns for Father Hamel at a mass at Notre-Dame cathedral
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The mass was held in memory of the priest, who was ordained 58 years ago
Speaking at the scene of the killing in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray today, President Francois Hollande said the terror group had declared war on France.
Describing the grisly slaying as a 'cowardly assassination', he added that the state should 'use all its means' within the law to fight ISIS.
The president also called the killing a 'dreadful terrorist attack' and told reporters the attackers had pledge allegiance to the militant group.
"The threat remains very high," Hollande said.
The ISIS news agency Amaq confirmed two of its 'soldiers' were involved.
The attack was the latest in a string of deadly assaults, including the mass killing in Nice, southern France, on Bastille Day 12 days ago, and four incidents in Germany.
REUTERS
Special forces officers are pictured during today's raid, when a teenager was arrested
REUTERS
The arrest followed the church slaying, which was witnessed by terrified parishioners
French policemen stand outside the house during the raid this afternoon
The most recent of these was a suicide bombing at a concert in Ansbach on Sunday.
During today's assault, the two knifeman stormed the church through a rear door during morning mass, before taking a number of hostages, eyewitnesses say.
They then filmed themselves forcing Father Hamel to kneel before butchering him with a blade - as anti-terror cops surrounded the building.
The terrorists, who also made two nuns and two worshippers kneel on the ground, were later shot dead by police after emerging into the courtyard outside.
As bomb squad officers searched the church for possible booby-traps, one member of the congregation was rushed to hospital 'between life and death'.
REUTERS
French police work near tents as the investigation continues near the church
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Paramedics were seen taking individuals away on stretchers after the attack
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Police officers stand on guard in the streets of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray
Their current condition is unclear. Another worshipper was said to have been less severely hurt.
The body of Father Hamel - who was ordained in 1958 - was found inside the church after the slaying.
Mourners have since paid tribute to the much-loved elderly priest, who was an assistant at the church and only taking mass because the parish priest was away on holiday.
Many of them have posted pictures of him on Twitter, showing him wearing his Catholic robes.
Resident Eulalie Garcia, who works in a beauty parlour next to the church, said Father Hamel was 'treasured' by all those who knew him.
She said: "My family has lived here for 35 years. He was someone who was treasured by the community."
The Vatican described the priest's killing as 'barbarous', made even worse because it was carried out in a 'sacred place'.
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The Vatican described the attack as a 'barbarous killing'
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Sid Ahmed Ghlam was arrested on suspicion of planning terror attacks last year
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Earlier today, it emerged that the Church of the Gambetta was on the 'kill list' of a suspected ISIS terrorist arrested last year.
Sid Ahmed Ghlam, 24, was arrested last April when he called an ambulance in Paris after shooting himself in the leg.
Investigators believe he was a terrorist planning 'imminent attacks' in France on the instructions of ISIS leaders.
They found the body of a woman in his car along with an arsenal of weapons including Kalashnikovs and a police-issue pistol.
Documents found at his flat suggested he was in contact with a Frenchman in Syria who had told him to carry out attacks on churches.
President Francois Hollande said the terror group had declared war on France
Rex Features
A police car is pictured near the scene of the grisly killing
These included the Sacre-Couer in Paris and churches including the one in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray targeted yesterday.
Ghlam, an Algerian student, is currently in prison awaiting trial for murder, attempted murder and terrorism offences.
There is no suggestion he was involved in carrying out today's attack.
It also earlier emerged that one of the attackers was a convicted terrorist who was meant to be living with his parents with an electronic tag on his ankle.
Kermich was arrested in Geneva last year after being expelled from Turkey for trying to join ISIS in Syria for the second time.
He was convicted of terrorist offences in France and sent to jail before being freed in March on a tag.
Rex Features
Soldiers were dispatched to the incident, along with armed cops and a bomb disposal squad
Prosecutors had opposed his release but were overruled by judges, according to local reports.
The conditions of his release included living with his parents, wearing a tag and reporting to his local police station.
But crucially he was only subject to a curfew between 12.30pm and 8.30am - allowing him to carry out this morning's attack, which took place between 9.45am and 11am.
It is understood Kermich was radicalised after the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris in January last year.
He was also an associate of Maxime Hauchard, a French jihadist who appeared in an ISIS execution video of U.S aid worker Peter Kassig.
Hauchard, now known as Abu Abdullah al-Faransi, regularly worshipped at a mosque in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.
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The knifemen are said to have entered the back of the church
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French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet speaks to the medias as he arrives at the scene
He travelled to Syria in August 2013 and is still believed to be in the war-torn region.
Both Kermich and the other terrorist who carried out today's attack were on an anti-terrorist 'S' watch-list compiled by French officials.
Questions will now be asked about how the attackers was able to carry out the murder despite being known to the authorities.
France's security services have been regularly criticised for the way they allow known terrorists their freedom after being found guilty of crimes.
REUTERS
Hollande speaks with police forces after the devasating attack
Google
The hostages were taken at the Church of the Gambetta in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray
Earlier today, Prime Minister Theresa May offered her 'condolences to the French people following the sickening attack in Northern France this morning'.
She said it was important to stand 'shoulder to shoulder with France'.
She said: “We offer them every support we have in dealing with this issue and this threat that they, and the rest of us, are facing.
“They are trying to destroy our way of life. They are trying to destroy our values. We have shared values and those values will win through and the terrorists will not win.”
Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls described the attack as 'barbaric', adding: “We will stand together.”
Prime Minister Theresa May said it was important to stand 'shoulder to shoulder with France'
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who visited the scene, said he felt 'horror at this barbarity and great solidarity with all Catholics in France in this moment of trial'.
And former PM Jean-Pierre Raffarin tweeted: “Everything is being done to trigger a war of religions”.
Pope Francis also spoke out after this morning's murder, saying he shared the “sorry and horror” felt over the “barbaric” terror attack.
Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby urged people to “Pray for France, for victims, for their communities.”
And confirming Father Hamel's death, the Archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, said: "I cry to God with all men of good will.
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A policeman reacts as he secures a position in front of the city hall
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French police officers and firemen arrive at the scene of the attack
"The only arms which the Catholic Church can take up are prayer and brotherhood between men."
The Archbishop cut short a visit to Poland to return to his diocese,
The investigation into the killing is being carried out by the anti-terrorist unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office.
It is the same team probing links between ISIS and the Bastille Day attack in Nice.
Seven people remain in custody suspected of helping Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlelcarry out the truck massacre.
Shame on the cheering Polish crowds who support a Pope who orders them to flood their country with illegal alien Muslim invaders, rapists, freeloaders and potential jihadists. And tells them that Islam’s war on the West has nothing to do with religion.
