The two women and four children were sent to a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, according to the report.
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The incidents came less than a week after the deadly attacks in Paris and as President Obama and mostly Republican lawmakers engaged in a heated debate over admitting Syrian refugees.
Opposition has quickly grown against a White House plan to allow into the U.S. 10,000 carefully vetted Syrian refugees, with at least 31 governors threatening to refuse entry into their states for refugees.
More than 145,000 people from countries other than Mexico were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2015 federal budget year that ended September 30. According to the post, Garza said agents in the Laredo area were “concerned” because they had “heard about Syrians being apprehended in the area from other federal agents”, although he also said he couldn’t confirm that Syrians had recently been apprehended.
“Due to privacy issues, no additional information will be provided at this time”, DHS said in a statement. “It was a Syrian refugee family that went to the Laredo port of entry in my state and basically turned themselves in for political asylum”, McCaul said, meaning they were seeking shelter from imminent harm in their home country.
Two federal agents, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Breitbart News that the Syrians were apprehended on Monday in two separate “family units”.
Homeland Security insists the eight refugees in Laredo are different because they turned themselves in to authorities, and were not trying to sneak into the U.S.
Agents assigned to the Ajo Border Patrol Station were patrolling along the global boundary near Lukeville when they discovered footprints left by several individuals who apparently entered the United States illegally.
Plus, asylum seekers who pass the initial credible fear interview, the first step in the asylum process, are often released from custody to await a court hearing.
The married couple and their 5-year-old son had been living in Jordan and waited three years to resettle in the U.S.
But Syrians arriving this week did not try to elude immigration officials, instead presenting themselves at the border, like other immigrants, seeking asylum.
We asked Homeland Security if any Syrians had sought asylum in the USA before. A spokesperson pointed us to fiscal year 2013 data-the most recent available-which showed that 811 Syrians were granted asylum during that period, up from 364 in 2012 and 60 in 2011, the year the Syrian civil war began.
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As you may recall, a group of eight Syrians were also taken by CBP at a Laredo port of entry on Tuesday.
