DHS unaware of any ‘active plot’ by ISIS to cross the Mexican border

The Department of Homeland Security has no knowledge of an imminent plan by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to send fighters across the Mexican border into the United States, a top agency official said Tuesday.

“There is no credible information that there is an active plot to traverse the southwest border now,” Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters at the National Press Club.

{mosads}Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry have all argued that increased border security is required to prevent members of the Islamist militant group from slipping across undetected. They say the flood of migrant children over the summer has exposed just how porous the border is.

Mayorkas said the administration is taking the threat from ISIS seriously.

“We at the Department of Homeland Security have the obligation to be — and are very much — vigilant in terms of our nation’s security, whether that be by land by sea or by air,” he said.