Virginia Man Arrested for Helping Smuggle Somalis with Terrorist Ties into the U.S.

A timelyoffer from www.fairus.org Somali illegal immigration. This follows this post about the dangers to the environment due to immigration, and this post shows that there are 30,000 openly illegal immigrants in the border town of El Paso. For more interesting stories like this click here to follow this blog.


Virginia Man Arrested for Helping Smuggle Somalis with Terrorist Ties into the U.S.
A Virginia man who has admitted contacts with an Islamic terrorist group has been charged with helping 270 Somalis enter the United States illegally. (The Examiner, February 23, 2010). Anthony Joseph Tracy allegedly moved to Kenya last April to set up a business that procured fraudulent Cuban travel visas for Somalis. These Somalis would travel from Kenya to Cuba and then illegally enter the United States through Mexico. (Fox News, February 23, 2010). The criminal complaint alleges that Tracy provided fraudulent information to his contacts in the Cuban Embassy in order to gain the visas and that he knew that the U.S. was the Somalis’ intended final destination. The complaint also states Tracy obtained fraudulent visas for as many as ten Somalis a week, charging between $100 and $1,000 for the fake documents. Id. Federal agents arrested Tracy last month after returning to the United States.
Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) is searching for the almost 300 Somalis who illegally entered the U.S. with Tracy’s assistance, but have yet to locate any of the suspected illegal aliens. Id. The search has taken on a troubling significance, as federal officials have uncovered what appear to be ties between Tracy and Al-Shabaab, a Somali group that declared an alliance with al-Qaeda earlier this year. According to court documents, Tracy told authorities that while living in Kenya he was contacted by Al-Shabaab. Id. At least one ICE agent has testified that the agency is “concerned” about the 35 year-old man’s dealings with the terrorist group, despite Tracy’s claim during a polygraph that he “refused to help them” when they approached him and asked for his assistance. Id. But an email Tracy wrote suggests otherwise, "i helped alot of somalis and most are good but there are some who are bad and i leave them to ALLAH." (The Examiner, February 23, 2010). Tracy’s emails and information on Facebook indicate that the Somalis have spread across the country and are living in New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Minnesota, and Arizona.
Tracy, who served time in prison in the 1990s and converted to Islam while incarcerated, is not the first American with suspected ties to al-Shabaab, as the FBI has been investigating for over a year how more than 20 young Somali-Americans from Minnesota were recruited to train and fight alongside the terrorist group in Somalia. (Fox News, February 23, 2010). That investigation resulted in 14 men being charged with terrorism-related offenses. Several months ago, FOX News reported that law enforcement officials were concerned that al-Shabaab fighters could be smuggled into the United States to launch attacks. Id. An official with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told FOX News, "It's certainly something that quite plainly is definitely on the radar. We're alert to that and doing our part to make sure that we address that threat." Id. FOX News also reported that last February, CBP sent an alert to its offices about al-Shabaab that stated, "It is feared that U.S. citizens and residents are being called to action in Somalia, as well as to support the illegal migration of Somalis to the United States." Id. Tracy, who federal prosecutors describe as a public threat and a flight risk, is currently being held without bail.