Intelligence and Migration: Cases from North America

Abstract

Intelligence and Migration: Cases from North America

By Michael Andregg, University of St. Thomas and University of Minnesota, mmandregg@stthomas.edu For the Sixth “Need to Know” Conference, 17-18 November, 2016, at Karlskrona, Sweden, for the Institute of National Remembrance, Poland, the Swedish Naval Museum, and BISA

Introduction The USA and Canada receive migrants from every part of the world. Many are legal immigrants and some are illegal or undocumented (about 11 million in the USA of a population of about 324 million, or ~ 3.4% of the total US population in 2016). Syrians, North Africans, Afghans and Iraqi refugees are the biggest immigration demographics in Europe, but in North America other ethnicities predominate, especially Latin Americans and Asians.

21st century terrorism has increased concerns about immigrants, especially undocumented or “illegal” immigrants. There is a long history of such concerns in North America beginning with Native American fears of the tidal wave of Europeans entering after 1492. What happened to them is one lesson security professionals must consider. The natives were nearly wiped out over a period of centuries, often by direct aggression, but more by disease and exile to harsh and barren lands. If large numbers of immigrants with aggressive birth rates come, they can take over entire continents in just a few centuries. But our vigorous and interesting continent has also been “built by immigrants” who remain very important to national economies today.

Immigrant populations of special interest to modern US intelligence services have included:

Cubans (who enjoy a special immigration status and intelligence significance). Somalians (targeted for recruitment for foreign wars by Al Shabaab and ISIS). Colombians (and other South and Central Americans, of special interest in drug wars). Mexicans (the same except that Mexicans and their descendants are also very involved in domestic US agriculture, construction, health care, and every job description). Chinese (of special national security concern for economic and technical espionage). Poles, Romanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Slovenes, Czech’s, and all Eastern European ethnicities (of special relevance during the ‘Cold War,’ now warming up again).

We will survey these ethnic groups with respect to three broader themes:

A. National security concerns like counterterrorism and counter proliferation (of WMD). B. The drug wars. C. Economic espionage and cybersecurity concerns (related, but also quite different).

After this review, a small section will deal with the special problem of sea routes for smuggling drugs, human beings, and weapons. One oddity is immediately obvious. US coastal surveillance can detect the smallest raft carrying people from Haiti or Cuba toward our shores, but typically misses over 90% of drug shipments. An historic case involving the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) CIA and cocaine during the Iran-Contra period (mid-1980’s) will be presented based on public records and less well known, but very detailed testimony and publications of an agent who worked for both of those agencies and the US Army over a long career. Bradley Earl Ayers had extensive knowledge of sea routes and Cuban operations going back to Operation Mongoose in 1962 when he worked for the CIA at Miami Station, focused on national security concerns. Then he worked for the DEA on drug trafficking during the 1980’s in south Florida. Some missions overlapped during Iran-Contra, which led to problems then and now.