More than 700 arrested in run-up to Election Day

November 05, 2004|Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- More than 700 people were arrested on immigration violations and thousands more subjected to FBI interviews in an intense government effort to avert a terrorist attack aimed at disrupting the election.

As with past unrealized Al Qaeda threats, law enforcement officials said yesterday they do not know for sure whether any of those arrests or interviews foiled an attack.

"It's very hard to prove a negative," Michael Garcia, chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in an interview yesterday. "We did cases and operations for people we thought posed national security concerns. We didn't arrest anyone who had a bomb."

For example, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a 23-year-old Pakistani man in late October who had illegally entered the United States through Mexico in 2000 and was working as a fuel tanker truck driver with access to a major US seaport.

The man, who was not further identified, is charged with making false statements about how he entered the country and remains under investigation for any links to terrorism.

He was one of the 237 people arrested in October alone on immigration violations, for a total of over 700 since the enforcement effort began last year, Garcia said. "It was a broad approach that led us to have a very disruptive effect, we believe," he said.

Although the election season passed without an attack, officials say Al Qaeda remains a dangerous foe intent on striking the United States again.

The day after the election, Attorney General John Ashcroft told his senior staff to not let their guard down.

The Jan. 20 presidential inauguration heads the list of upcoming high-profile events that officials say could draw terrorist interest. Others include the Feb. 6 Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., and the December holiday travel season, which last year saw several threats against trans-Atlantic flights.