Paxton raises fears of Hamas ‘infiltration’

In the latest volley in his legal battle with the Biden administration over state-installed razor wire along the Rio Grande, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suggested Hamas operatives might try to enter the U.S. from Mexico.

In a motion filed on Friday in U.S. District Court in Del Rio, Paxton said, “There is presently a crisis of human trafficking, drug smuggling, and terrorist infiltration along the southern border.”

The motion went on to say that U.S. Customs and Border Protection warned “just days ago … that operatives from Hamas may be seeking to enter through the U.S.-Mexico border.”

The filing offered no evidence for that assertion, beyond a footnote referring to a recent ABC News report. The report said a memo circulated by CBP officials in San Diego, Calif., alerted agents to the possibility that “individuals inspired by, or reacting to, the current Israel-Hamas conflict” might try to cross the Southwestern border.

Friday’s motion was in support of a lawsuit Paxton filed on Tuesday against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and various federal officials seeking to prevent the government from ripping out concertina wire installed along the border as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star.

Federal officials have said the razor wire prevents migrants from climbing to safety from the river, creating a risk of drowning. Border Patrol agents sometimes cut through the wire to rescue migrants trapped in the river.

In the motion, Paxton asked a judge for a temporary restraining order to block the government “from continuing to damage, destroy, or otherwise meddle with Texas’s concertina wire fence.” The attorney general said that in an act of “brazen escalation” after Texas filed suit, federal agents used a forklift to rip out a section of fence and allowed more than 300 migrants into the country.

Paxton invoked Hamas on the eighth page of the 10-page motion. He said CBP had warned of possible infiltration by Hamas agents in an “intelligence note.”

A footnote at the bottom of the same page referred to the Oct. 23 ABC News report, which was headlined: “Hamas militants ‘may potentially’ try crossing southern border, US officials warn.”

According to the ABC report, the memo said “individuals inspired by, or reacting to, the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle east via circuitous transit across the Southwest border.”

The document included images of insignias worn by Hamas, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and it warned CBP personnel to keep an eye out for young men wearing military gear and traveling alone.

A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told ABC that the agency had no indication Hamas has directed militants to try to enter the U.S.

Paxton’s allusion to Hamas echoed the rhetoric of other Republican elected officials, who have incorporated the threat of terrorism into their critique of President Joe Biden’s border security and immigration policies.

Rep. Tony Gonzales told Fox Business on Friday that Hamas’ cross-border invasion of Israel was a wake-up call for the United States.

“What happened in Israel can absolutely happen in our backyard, because border security is national security,” he said.

Gonzales, a Republican, represents Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, which stretches from San Antonio to El Paso and includes hundreds of miles along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Federal authorities have downplayed the risk of terrorist infiltration while acknowledging that it must be taken seriously, particularly in light of the large numbers of migrants traversing South and Central American to enter the U.S.

“We obviously are concerned that with that increase, you might have an increase in people who might come over with malign intentions, including potential terrorists,” Kenneth Wainstein, the U.S. undersecretary of homeland security for intelligence and analysis, said in a recent speech in Washington, D.C., Voice of America reported.

Wainstein said the department and other agencies have “significantly ramped up their operations to ensure that we’re identifying any such bad actors before they come across.”

“What happened in Israel can absolutely happen in our backyard, because border security is national security.”

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, interviewed last week on Fox Business

Jerry Lara/Staff photographer In his latest legal challenge to Border Patrol filed Friday, Attorney General Ken Paxton suggests that Hamas terrorists could cross the border among migrants like these at Eagle Pass.