Russian FSB is trying to illegally enter US from Mexico
Russian FSB is trying to illegally enter US from Mexico
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine last year, thirteen Russians working for FSB have been arrested illegally crossing into the US from Mexico.
“Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine last year, thirteen Russians working for FSB have been arrested illegally crossing into the US from Mexico,” US DHS sources said. Those thirteen individuals, among them two women, all used the same strategy. First they flew from Russia (through Turkey) to Cancun and then they asked for political asylum at a Mexico-US land border. And though they showed up at different times and at different border crossings between Arizona and California, they also all had similar stories.
They all claimed to have been prosecuted in Russia for being independent journalists, civil activists, or NGO workers. But those claims were far from reality. As each was detained on the border, US law enforcement found out their real occupations—agents for the Federal Security Service of Russian Federation (FSB). And at least two of them, who pretended to be journalists fleeing prosecution, were in fact tasked with spying on opposition journalists in the US.
One of the two further purported he had been recruited by the FSB while in prison in Russia—a weak cover since the internet media outlet they both claimed to work for is in fact pro-government. One of them is listed as author of at least one article, published in 2019, and the other one is not listed as an author at all.
Discovering the true identities of the thirteen Russians had taken time because they, like the majority of other crossing immigrants, arrived at the border without any documents. They claimed that the Mexican police had taken them. But according to DHS officers, after landing in Mexico, those asylum seekers most likely sent their documents to a trusted person already in the US.
After being detained at the border, all immigrants seeking asylum are taken to a detention facility where they wait for a court hearing. Currently, the wait time is between two and six months. If they are not granted asylum, they are deported to their country of origin. In the case of Russian immigrants, because there are no flights between US and Russia, they are sent home through a third country such as Turkey.
Russian security service agents trying to sneak into the US are not the only Russian nationals arrested on the border and then deported last year. Several ex-ISIS members from Caucasus also tried to cross the Mexico-US border illegally. But because they were internationally wanted—one had even taken part in ISIS propaganda videos—it was easier to identify them.
Several other high-profile defectors from Russian security services have come across the border, but compared to those who tried to hide their FSB affiliation, they had immediately revealed their identity and highlighted their willingness to cooperate. Those were handled by the FBI who would then check if they really wanted to defect or if it was just a cover story.
While many countries restricted the entrance of Russian citizens after Russia invaded Ukraine, Mexico was not one of them. Traveling there is still very easy for holders of Russian passports. The only thing a traveler needs to do is submit an electronic form in advance and pretend to be a tourist by booking roundtrip plane tickets and making a hotel reservation.
Interviewed Russian citizens who successfully made this trip to the US have said it is very rare for someone to be refused entry at the airport in Mexico. And although Mexican police understand those people intend to continue on to the US instead of vacationing in Mexico, the only problem those immigrants usually face is a demand for a bribe.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, more than 16,000 Russian citizens have sought political asylum in the US, according to a senior DHS official. Going through Mexico to get there is so popular that one of the many Russian-language social media groups discussing how to illegally cross the border has more than 21,000 members. According to US law enforcement, some of these groups are run by people affiliated with the Russian government. But other groups are manned by people running profitable businesses who offer clients services associated with illegal border crossing. These outlets offer advice on what to tell DHS officers to decrease chances of getting detained at the border; they advertise emigration lawyers in the US; they list hotels on the border; they help exchange rubles to dollars; they even smuggle pets across the border from Tijuana to San Diego.
This last service is especially popular. A person cannot request asylum on the border with a pet, and if a person is detained, his pet will be taken to a state shelter. The cost to smuggle them through is $450 for a cat and $500 for a dog, and if the owner is detained, the pet will be boarded with a trusted person in San Diego, and the owner charged an additional per day fee. And even those pets are crossing without documents. When coming through an airport, all animals need a veterinary passport confirming their health and required vaccinations, something dogs and cats being smuggled across the Mexico-US border are not required to have.
The increase in attempted crossings by those working for the Russian government is alarming and spreads the already thin Mexico-US border security forces even thinner. And although thirteen FSB agents have been arrested, DHS officials agree that others have most likely gotten through successfully and are already inside the US.