(Texas Scorecard) – Foreign nationals from regions in the Middle East and Africa have been discovered entering Texas along with a large group of illegal aliens.
The entire group consisted of 134 illegals. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers encountered them in Maverick County, where seven were identified as having come from Iran and Angola—resulting in their classification as “special interest” aliens.
Special interest illegal aliens are individuals who the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has identified as potentially posing a national security risk to the United States.
Countries or points of origin, travel patterns, and potential connections to terrorist groups are examined when determining who is and is not a special interest alien.
Texas has been listed as one of 29 U.S. states with known terrorist cases.
Last week, another group of 22 special interest aliens were apprehended in Maverick County by Texas DPS.
“These are not illegal immigrants seeking asylum—these are people trying to cross into the United States undetected who may also be trying to do us harm,” DPS Director Steve McGraw said after 27 others were arrested in Eagle Pass earlier this month.
Among the 134 total aliens recently encountered in Maverick County, an additional 32 of them were unaccompanied minors, meaning they had no parents or legal guardians at the border with them when they crossed. Most likely, they will be transferred to the custody of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, under HHS, is responsible for releasing these children to sponsors based inside the United States.
Though the office claims that sponsors are usually family members of the children, a recent video exposé suggests otherwise. According to Muckraker, many are being released to total strangers—skyrocketing the risk of human trafficking.
Texas Public Policy Foundation campaign director for Secure & Sovereign Texas, Selene Rodriguez, previously explained that loosening restrictions for unaccompanied minors and failing to properly vet the sponsors abets the risk.
“When you lack security at the border, you hand the cartels a booming business of human trafficking,” she said. “Every person that seeks to cross into the U.S. via the southern border now has to pay the cartels in some way to do so.”