This US City Has Been Flagged as Potential ‘Hotbed’ for Terror Recruiting

Recent apprehensions of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia along the southern U.S. border have renewed security concerns in the region, amid claims that Phoenix in particular is becoming a “hotbed” for terror recruiting and activity.

One source told Fox News the FBI even briefed Phoenix police two weeks ago to notify them that the Islamic State is trying to recruit “high-school age students.”

Agents are on the look-out for any suspicious activity. Fox News has learned Border Patrol agents in Arizona caught three Saudi nationals last Saturday trying to evade a highway checkpoint. They were detained in an area considered one of the hottest smuggling routes in the U.S. and just a few miles from where, two days later, agents arrested five Pakistani nationals and one Afghani trying to enter the U.S. illegally.

“When it comes to terrorism there are no coincidences, and that fact that three Saudi Arabians were detained in the same area … days before Pakistanis and Afghans were arrested in the same area isn’t coincidence,” said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council.

The Border Patrol called the FBI, which responded with Homeland Security Investigations, and officials took custody of the Saudis. The three did not have required identification on them at the time but told agents they entered the U.S. on student visas to attend the University of Arizona. That turned out to be true. (Read more from “This US City Has Been Flagged as Potential ‘Hotbed’ for Terror Recruiting” HERE)

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