Film Claims Terrorists Have Successfully Crossed the U.S.-Mexican Border

With Republicans—and a few Democrats—complaining of a "crisis" at the southern border, a documentary film advancing the notion that radical Islamists have already entered the U.S. illegally via Mexico to inflict violence on Americans is headed to several streaming services.

The movie, dubbed America, Invaded, is also one of the first documentaries to explore—though rather briefly—the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has led to the ongoing war in Gaza.

But the film's primary draw is its interviews with a pair of human traffickers, one in Panama and another in Mexico, who say they have smuggled thousands across the border, including some who have expressed an interest in harming Americans.

Speaking from an undisclosed location without revealing his name, one boasts of smuggling into the U.S. accused murderers fleeing from justice in their Latin American home countries.

"They want to pay; I take them," he says. "Some who hate America and say they want to punish Americans."

Another focuses on how easy it is to help anyone—including bad actors—sneak into the U.S. "Not everywhere has a wall or a fence. Of course we use the open areas," he says.

The movie hails from director Namrata Singh Gujral and Uniglobe Entertainment, a boutique studio she partially owns. Gujral told Newsweek that Middle Eastern men pay "coyotes" $35,000 to $60,000 apiece to make their way from their home countries to Mexico, then sneak across the border into the U.S.

It's sure to be a hot topic heading into the presidential election. From October 2022 to September 2023, officials arrested 169 people at the southern border who are on a terrorist watch list, up from 98 in the previous fiscal year and just 15 the year prior to that, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.

FBI director Christopher Wray, seen in the film via news clips, told the House Committee on Homeland Security in November that "the threats that come from the other side of the border are very much consuming FBI field offices, not just in the border states."

In a subsequent press release, Wray confirmed that "Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah have been emboldened to spread their malign influence following the October 7 terrorist attacks on our ally, Israel."

Gujral is no stranger to controversial films. Three years ago, she made a movie called America's Forgotten that was about those who have been tortured, abused and killed by human traffickers promising their victims safe passage from Mexico to the U.S.

That movie was so politically sensitive by Hollywood's progressive standards that nearly every crew member involved had their name withheld for fear of backlash, according to Gujral.

Gujral tells Newsweek that she's a Democrat, though in the mold of Bill Maher, the TV host who leans right on a variety of topics. She also agrees with U.S. Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who told Politico earlier this month that he hopes "Democrats can understand that it isn't xenophobic to be concerned about the border."

But Gujral said that for her upcoming film, she reached out to 10 members of Congress; five Democrats—including one for whom she has raised money in the past—and five Republicans, but only members of the latter party agreed to on-screen interviews, including Representatives Cory Mills of Florida and Paul Gosar of Arizona.

The movie begins streaming February 2 on Rumble, Salem Now, Tubi, Amazon Prime and AmericaInvadedFilm.com.

Gujral said that she hadn't intended to make another movie about the southern border, until a Gold Star Mother who lost her son in Iraq approached her at a screening of America's Forgotten in Texas.

"She told me she liked the movie, but what about the national security aspect? She said her son fought and died to make sure no terrorists ever attacked the U.S. again, but there's been lots of attacks since then, perpetrated by people we're letting in."

Hence, America, Invaded also spends a large amount of time with Gold Star moms and other relatives of the men and women who were killed after joining the U.S. military to fight the global war on terror.

The film's primary narrator, actor Nick Searcy, ties it all together with the line: "While American soldiers continued to give the ultimate sacrifice in the war on terror, jihadists allowed into the U.S. continued their terrorist attacks on American soil."

But the movie isn't only about potential terrorists who illegally cross the Mexican border, but also the dangers posed by some who entered the country legally.

Hence the film revisits the terrorist attacks of 9/11 with dramatic audio and video and notes that the perpetrators had visas, then segues into several smaller acts of terrorism, all of which were also committed by legal residents or those who overstayed their legitimate visas.

Some of the stories retold include:

In 2020, Pakistani Dr. Muhammad Masood, in the country on an H-1B Visa, was arrested in Minnesota, accused of attempting to provide material support to ISIS. In August, he was sentenced to 216 months in prison.

In New York in 2017, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov drove a truck on the Hudson River Park's bike path for about a mile, killing eight people and injuring 11 more. Saipov was in the U.S. on a Diversity Immigrant Visa, which is issued to 55,000 people annually with the goal of diversifying the U.S. population.

Also in 2017, Syed Rizan Farook, born in Chicago, and his wife Tafsheen Malik, a Pakistani woman who had entered the U.S. on an H-1 Visa, died in a shootout with police after firing more than 60 rounds into a banquet hall of coworkers, murdering 14 people and injuring 22 others in San Bernardino, California.

In 2013, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev killed three and injured hundreds, including 17 who lost limbs, by way of homemade bombs placed near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The Tsarnaev family arrived in the U.S. on tourist visas, then applied for political asylum.

And the movie features experts on Islamic terror, including Dr. Iqtidar Mohd Khan, head of the Department of Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, who defends Islam, explains jihad and criticizes the U.S. media.

The first level of jihad is "with your soul," he says, while the second level is "through your pen" and the third is "with a weapon," though the killing of innocents is not allowed, thus anyone engaging in an act of terror "should not call himself a Muslim," Khan says in the movie during an interview with Gujral.

He adds: "People like you in the media are the problem. Out of 10, if nine Muslims are good and one Muslim is bad, the media will highlight the one bad Muslim and not the nine good ones."

Vikram Sood, former head of India's foreign intelligence agency (called The Research & Analysis Wing), is seen countering that view by noting that, while Islam is "the religion of peace," too many of its practitioners believe that "peace will come only when all of the world becomes Islamic."

Gujral said she actually delayed releasing the film when she landed an interview with Sood, given how respected the R&AW is and how secretive its leaders and former leaders tend to be.

"Having investigated the national security issue in-depth for this film, I sense another 9/11 happening soon," Gujral said. "Americans need to make national security our No. 1 issue in 2024 or we will regret it."