SONOITA, Ariz (KGUN9-TV) - With so many people on edge about Middle Eastern terrorism, we are hearing now that Border Patrol arrested six Middle Eastern men a few miles north of the US-Mexico border.
Agents found the men Monday near Sonoita in Santa Cruz County. They were with two Mexican nationals most likely paid to smuggle them into the U-S.
Border Patrol keeps a large presence in Sonoita with checkpoints on the roads and agents ready to search the back country.
The Sonoita area is a combination of open grassland and mountains. When an electronic sensor alerted agents Monday they found five men from Pakistan and one from Afghanistan, along with two Mexican men.
The FBI says the Joint Terrorism Task Force checked the men and found no ties to terrorism.
About a quarter of the people Border Patrol finds in the Tucson Sector are not from Mexico. More than 19 thousand were from other countries in fiscal 2014---most from Central America but Border Patrol has found people from countries as diverse as India and Romania.
Grace Wystrach lives in Sonoita. She says, “I think we need to be careful we don't develop a prejudice against everyone who's from other countries creating a danger. I think we have to look at it and hopefully our people who are doing their job on security are double checking the triple checking and I'm not sure they'll succeed every time either."
Now the men are in Federal custody.
