The United Nations has issued a report,
Transnational Organized Crime inCentral America and the Caribbean:
A Threat Assessment

Page 45:

Central America as a global pathway to the United States
Central Americans are not the only ones being smuggled through Mexico to the United States. Irregular migrants from the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Somalia, and Ethiopia), as well as South Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, and India), China and other African and Asian States are also being smuggled through Central America. Migrants from the Horn of Africa are transported using land routes to South Africa, and then air transport to Brazil and Colombia. Those who can afford onward air travel fly to Mexico, while others proceed by land and sea to Costa Rica or Panama. From that point, their journey looks very much like that of the Central Americans. Until recently, Indian nationals did not require a visa to enter Guatemala, and from there joined the rest moving northward.

Chinese nationals may reach their North American destinations via Central America and Mexico with forged passports from Japan or Hong Kong, China, which allow entry without a visa.

According to the authorities of Panama, smuggling of Cuban migrants has increased threefold in the first months of 2012.

Among other the findings,

As with drug trafficking, migrant smuggling involves
transportista-type groups, territorial groups, predatory groups, and street gangs.

The Zetas, the Maras, and other territorial groups ap-pear to be involved in migrant smuggling, human trafficking, and the firearms trade. This involvement may increase if cocaine revenues decline.

Breitbart first carried the story,

The report identifies the Islamic terrorist haven of Somalia as being one of the nations from which the illegal U.S. bound border-crossers are originating.

The UN Threat Assessment–which refers to illegal aliens as “irregular migrants”–states:

Central Americans are not the only ones being smuggled through Mexico to the United States. Irregular migrants from the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Somalia, and Ethiopia), as well as South Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, India), China, and other African and Asian states are being smuggled through Central America.

The National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC), which serves as the primary organization in the United States Government for integrating and analyzing all intelligence pertaining to counterterrorism, states that much of Somalia was taken over by Al-Shabaab, the militant wing of the Somali Council of Islamic Courts, before it entered a phase of on-and-off control of various key regions of the failed nation.

Similarly, the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations in-depth analysis of Somalia states:

Its porous borders mean that individuals can enter without visas, and once inside the country, enjoy an almost complete lack of law enforcement. Somalia has long served as a passageway from Africa to the Middle East based on its coastal location on the Horn of Africa, just a boat ride away from Yemen. These aspects make Somalia a desirable haven for transnational terrorists, something Al-Qaeda has tried to capitalize on before, and is trying again now.

As I have said many times over the past eight years, border security is national security.

Related: Immigration from south of the Mexican border

UPDATE
Linked by Public Secrets and Sister Toldjah. Thank you!

Read the UN report below the fold:
[Read more…]