Only On ABC-7: Anapra, Mexico residents, US congressman debunk ISIS training camp rumor

Residents of the small border community of Anapra, Mexico say an article about an ISIS training camp in the area is nothing more than a “rumor.”

“They should not be saying things with no basis,” said Rosa Velia Sanchez, a mother of three.

Sanchez was at a bus stop waiting to catch a ride to the factory where she works in the nearby industrial Ciudad Juarez.

“We’re all working class people, people who work in factories, an construction,” said Sanchez.

“We would notice strangers,” said Sanchez. She and other neighbors say outsiders, especially foreigners stand out.

“Right away you can recognize it by the accent,” said Jose Sanchez.

“I’m from Zacatecas for example.” And his neighbors can tell if someone is from another part of Mexico simply by simply by their regional accent.

Residents of the Mexican border community echo authorities in the U.S. who say there’s no evidence to support the claim by the website Judicial Watch that “the exact location where the terrorist group has established its base is around eight miles from the U.S. border in an area known as Anapra.”

“I reached out to the Mexican government, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Northern Command,”said Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) in a statement posted on his facebook page.

“None of them have found any evidence, credible or otherwise, that Isis is in Jurez,” said Congressman O’Rourke. Anapra is in the Ciudad Juarez area.

“Our sources are trusted and in the past have proven reliable and correct,” said Jill Ferrell, a spokesperson for Judicial Watch.

The article quotes two unnamed sources including “a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector.”

Judicial Watch’s researcher is a “former army intelligence officer who specializes in human intelligence,” according to Ferrell.

He spent time in the El Paso “area” but that did not include a trip across the border or a “ride along” to see the camp in Mexico,” said Ferrell.

The only person recruiting on the streets during a recent afternoon in Anapra was a young man with a loud speaker trying to get people to apply for jobsatarea factories or “maquiladoras.”

A group of neighborsarmed with brooms and shovelswere on the streetsas part of an organized spring cleaning effort.

But residents in this close knit working class community are confident there is no terrorist army orISIS soldiers in their midst training nearby.

“If there were here, we’d have spotted them right away,” said Sanchez.