Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter offered candid remarks to CNN on Friday regarding the militant group ISIS, stating his office is prepared for terrorist cells attempting to cross the border into Texas.
When CNN anchor Don Lemon asked what message Painter wants conveyed to the terrorist group, he firmly stated, “If they rear their ugly head, we’ll send them to hell.”
Painter previously spoke with a Midland TV station regarding ISIS, and he said CNN likely contacted him in response to that story.
The sheriff said he received an alert bulletin that ISIS — Islamic State of Iraq and Syria — may have formed a terrorist cell in or near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a Mexican border city across from El Paso. He said the alert warned law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for such activity.
The Reporter-Telegram contacted the FBI for a statement on the reports, but the organization is currently not commenting on the subject.
This is a serious issue for Painter, the former president of the Sheriff's Association of Texas. He said the situation is made worse by Texas’ open border.
Painter said a reported 10 million to 15 million “undocumented aliens” have crossed the border. However, like the ISIS report, there is scarce evidence to support both claims, he said.
But Painter said the reports should be treated as a real threat. ISIS agents or cohorts, he said, might already be inside U.S. borders and planning a potential attack on American soil.
“I think it’d be naive to say that (ISIS is) not here,” he told CNN.
Painter said he worked near the border at Presidio for eight years, and during that time, he noticed areas where people could easily slip into the U.S. He said many immigrants in the U.S. with visas might go unchecked when renewal time comes around and there are lax efforts for keeping tabs on people entering the country.
“Where is the safety and where is the security for this nation if that’s not taking place?” he asked.
Midland County deputies go through emergency management training twice a year in coordination with other local and federal law enforcement agencies. He said the multi-agency partnership is beneficial in creating a prepared response.
“You have to work with each other,” he said to CNN. “There’s no way you can do your job without depending on the public and without depending on each other.”
Gov. Rick Perry previously warned that terrorist forces from Iraq might already have crossed into the United States through an unsecured border with Mexico. He said this is an important issue that needs to be resolved, according to Reporter-Telegram records.
Painter said that President Barack Obama and the federal government need to take quick and appropriate action to weaken ISIS leadership. For Painter, that means striking ISIS hard at the source: Iraq and Syria.
“What needs to happen is that there needs to be enough bombs dropped on (ISIS leaders), that every time they hear a jet propeller they urinate themselves down both legs.”
