The Obama administration released a statement this week saying that it has no evidence showing Muslim extremists are plotting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border and do harm here.
The statement from the U.S. Homeland Security Department comes amid reports that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is seeking to cross the southwest border and wage war.
Quoting unnamed federal government officials, the conservative group Judicial Watch recently reported ISIS is "operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle borne improvised explosive devices."
ISIS — which also goes by the name Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — has captured large swaths of northern and western Iraq, where it is imposing a harsh interpretation of Islamic law. To protect refugees and American citizens in the region, the U.S. has been pounding the extremist group with airstrikes.
“There is no credible intelligence to suggest that there is an active plot by ISIL to attempt to cross the southern border,” Homeland Security spokeswoman Marsha Catron said in an email Tuesday.
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