Not So Fast: ISIS Crossing Texas-Mexico Border Not a Serious Concern

Today Texas Sheriff Gary Painter warned about the possibility that ISIS terrorists could cross the Texas-Mexico border.

Painter told Fox News that close to the border people had found “Muslim clothing” and copies of the Qu’ran. “So we know that there are Muslims that have come across and been smuggled in the United States,” he said.

Heritage policy experts James Carafano and Ana Quintana were dismissive of Painter’s concerns. “There is no credible evidence that the Islamic State is in Mexico with plans to sneak across the border,” Quintana says.

“Considering the number of global travelers coming into the U.S., any group of traveling terrorists is such a small number that it’s like looking for a needle in a needle stack,” warns Carafano, “so the idea of fixating on any group or border or mode of travel is stupid.”

“The best strategy is to focus on the traveling terrorists and not classes of travelers, geographic regions or borders,” adds Carafano, vice president of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation.

“Most of this fear mongering on visas, borders, passports s is simply ill-informed nonsense,” he concludes.

Quintana, who focuses on Latin America at The Heritage Foundation, says it is unlikely a partnership could form between Mexican cartels and ISIS:

Considering that Mexican cartels dominate human smuggling and border trafficking networks, the chances of ISIS coming across the border is even more unlikely. Mexican cartels are driven by profit, not an ideology to destroy the West and smuggling terrorists would undermine this trafficking infrastructure, which is not in their interest.

“But,” she adds, “this shouldn’t provide a false sense of security about the ruthless terror of ISIS.”