U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said Tuesday on Fox News that "at least 10 ISIS fighters have been caught coming across the border in Texas," claiming that he was informed of the issue through conversations with Border Patrol agents, though Department of Homeland Security denied such claims.
"ISIS is coming across the southern border," Hunter told Fox News on Tuesday's "On the Record." "They aren't flying B1 bombers bombing American cities, but they are going to be bombing American cities coming across from Mexico."
Border Patrol "caught them," claimed Hunter, but, he added, "you know there's going to be dozens more that did not get caught by the Border Patrol."
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman denied the claims, saying, "The suggestion that individuals who have ties to ISIL have been apprehended at the Southwest border is categorically false, and not supported by any credible intelligence or the facts on the ground. DHS continues to have no credible intelligence to suggest terrorist organizations are actively plotting to cross the southwest border."
Hunter maintained the accuracy of his claims, and an aide, Joe Kasper, said the information came from a "high-level source within the Border Patrol," reported Fox News.
"The congressman was conveying what he knows - and what he was told," Kasper said. "It makes sense that the left hand of DHS doesn't know what the right hand is doing - it's been that way for a long time and we don't expect that to change."
While speculations on the threat of terrorists crossing the southern U.S. border have been circulating for months now, the Obama administration has so far maintained that no specific intelligence or evidence exists indicating a U.S. border breach.
Four men with suspected terrorist ties were at one point apprehended at the southern border in Texas, but after being "scrutinized very, very carefully," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told Fox News that officials found "no evidence that these individuals were tied to terrorism."
