CBP: ‘No indication of Hamas-directed foreign fighters seeking entry’ into US
SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — As the war between Hamas and Israel rages on, some fear the destruction, pain and suffering will hit home as Hamas reportedly calls for acts of violence on U.S. soil.
Former President Donald Trump and some Republicans want the U.S. to seal its borders fearing a mass exodus of Palestinians escaping the war, suggesting that a surge of civilian refugees would also bring extremists into the country.
Nothing like this has materialized since the war started on Oct. 7.
Republicans warn many Gaza refugees could be headed for the US: Here’s why that’s unlikely
A flyer allegedly originating from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s San Diego Office of Field of Operations recently surfaced on social media, warning agents they may potentially encounter foreign fighters of the Israel-Hamas conflict along the Southwest border.
But the flyer, according to the San Diego Border Patrol Sector, “is not a Border Patrol product.”
And the CBP office in Washington, D.C., sent a statement to Border Report saying, “There is no indication of Hamas-directed foreign fighters seeking to make entry in the United States.”
Pedro Rios, a migrant advocate and member of the American Friends Service Committee, believes the flyer is part of a campaign to stir up paranoia and hysteria against migrants.
“The idea that people are coming to create injury or harm to anyone in the U.S. is without foundation,” said Rios. “To use what is taking place in other parts of the world and to suggest that this endangers people here in the U.S., is exploitative and totally for propaganda purposes.”
Rios said it is also part of a campaign to “criminalize migrants.”
“To suggest that people who are coming here from all parts of the world want to create harm and endanger people’s lives, that’s without foundation and not true.”
Rios, who spends most mornings along the border wall between San Diego and Tijuana feeding and tending to hundreds of migrants, says he has yet to meet anyone claiming to be from Gaza or fleeing the war between Hamas and Israel.
“What I see here are people who are hungry, thirsty who are wanting to make an asylum claim,” he said. “Some of them are scared, some of them are injured and that’s what we’re seeing out here.”
A spokesperson for the Border Patrol said agents in the San Diego Sector have also yet to encounter anyone fleeing the war.
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