A South African woman has pleaded not guilty to immigration charges in a case that has raised concerns about whether terrorists could enter the United States by way of Mexico.
Farida Goolam Mahamed Ahmed (48) was arrested on July 19 after being stopped by the border patrol at McAllen-Miller International airport in south Texas as she tried to board a plane bound for New York.
She carried a pair of muddy, wet pants in her baggage, $7 300 in various currencies and a passport with three double-sided pages missing. Border-patrol agents determined Ahmed did not have a valid visa for entry into the US.
Ahmed is scheduled for trial on October 12. Her attorney, federal public defender Brent Newton, estimated the trial will last four days.
During a court hearing in McAllen, testimony indicated Ahmed travelled from Johannesburg on July 8 via Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to London, then to Mexico City on or about July 14.
The countries through which she travelled do not require South Africans to have visas. She then allegedly crossed into the US illegally by wading across the Rio Grande.
She was charged with illegally entering the US, using an altered passport and making a false statement to a federal agent.
After Ahmed’s arrest, investigators tried to determine whether she had ties to terrorist groups.
Don DeGabrielle, first assistant US attorney in Houston, on Friday declined to specify terrorism concerns connected to Ahmed’s case or say whether she is on a watch list for terrorists. Law enforcement officials have previously said nothing regarding terrorism has been substantiated.
”This is an immigration case and we’re treating it as one,” he said after Ahmed’s court appearance.
The Monitor in McAllen reported in its Saturday editions that Ahmed’s sister and two nieces are being held by authorities in New York on immigration charges.
Daniel Ngwepe, a political counsellor for the South African embassy in Washington, told the newspaper that the three have been detained on charges of being in the US illegally after Ahmed had telephone conversations with them from her prison cell.
Ngwepe did not know whether Ahmed’s phone calls or the investigation had led authorities to her relatives. — Sapa-AP