A report by Judicial Watch suggests that the threat is far more real than has been imagined at first glance.

According to unnamed sources in the Mexican military and federal police, ISIS has established a camp in Mexico just eight miles from the southern border near El Paso, Eximiner reports.

“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” situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

Another ISIS cell to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas, targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States, the same knowledgeable sources confirm.”

One of the nightmare scenarios that keep security analysts up at night features terrorists like ISIS using the open border with Mexico to infiltrate suicide bombers and gunmen into the United States.

They could then attack soft targets, such as shopping malls, movie theaters, and schools to inflict maximum casualties before being taken down by local law enforcement.

Such an action would constitute a major public relations victory on the part of ISIS and a defeat for the United States that would overshadow 9/11 in its damage and trauma.

Soft targets may not be the only ones that ISIS is contemplating attacking.

“During the course of a joint operation last week, Mexican Army and federal law enforcement officials discovered documents in Arabic and Urdu, as well as “plans” of Fort Bliss – the sprawling military installation that houses the US Army’s 1st Armored Division.

Muslim prayer rugs were recovered with the documents during the operation.”

The ability of the Mexican Army to take out the camp is somewhat limited.

“Law enforcement and intelligence sources report the area around Anapra is dominated by the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Cartel (“Juárez Cartel”), La Línea (the enforcement arm of the cartel) and the Barrio Azteca (a gang originally formed in the jails of El Paso).

Cartel control of the Anapra area make it an extremely dangerous and hostile operating environment for Mexican Army and Federal Police operations.”

ISIS is likely looking at other targets in the southwest as well.

“Mexican intelligence sources report that ISIS intends to exploit the railways and airport facilities in the vicinity of Santa Teresa, NM (a US port-of-entry).

The sources also say that ISIS has ‘spotters’ located in the East Potrillo Mountains of New Mexico (largely managed by the Bureau of Land Management) to assist with terrorist border crossing operations.

ISIS is conducting reconnaissance of regional universities; the White Sands Missile Range; government facilities in Alamogordo, NM; Ft. Bliss; and the electrical power facilities near Anapra and Chaparral, NM.”

ISIS clearly has the will to commit any atrocity imaginable. Its record in the parts of the Middle East that it controls proves that supposition.

The report of a camp just a few hours march from the southern border suggests that it now has the ability.

The Obama administration, which has proven unusually passive in combating the threat abroad, may be caught asleep at the switch if and when the threat arrives on our shores.