The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied Congressman Duncan Hunter's (R-Calif.) claim that Islamic State militants entered the U.S. via the Mexico border.

On Tuesday night, Cong. Hunter told Fox News that at least ten fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as ISIS, were caught entering Texas from across the Southwest border. He also said nobody was talking about the whole happening, ABC News detailed.

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A source close to the California politician said a "high level" official at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Hunter they apprehended a group of people suspected to be linked with ISIS. The group included Americans who went to Syria to help the Free Syrian Army bring down President Bashar al-Assad, said the source.

In an email, the source emphasized that the people apprehended by the Border Patrol were not fighters, but merely people with suspected associations to the terrorist group.

However, the DHS shot down Hunter's claim, saying the congressman's claim about ISIL-linked individuals having been apprehended at the Mexico border was false. The report was not supported by "credible evidence," according to a statement released by a DHS spokesperson today.

 "DHS continues to have no credible intelligence to suggest terrorist organizations are actively plotting to cross the southwest border," ABC News cited the DHS spokesman as saying.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Cong. Hunter said the latter is worried about ISIS supporters easily infiltrating U.S. cities and cultivating a local breed of terrorists.

Joe Kasper, Hunter's deputy chief of staff, responded to DHS' denial of the reported apprehension of ISIS-linked individuals. Kasper defended the claim, explaining that Hunter was only telling Fox News the information he got from his source.

Kasper implied that the DHS is not privy to what the Customs and Border Protection, which is under the said department, is doing all the time.

In the past, Hunter has pushed for reinforcement of the U.S-Mexico border. However, the Obama administration has largely ignored his calls for stronger border security, the Daily Mail relayed.

TagsDuncan Hunter, Southwest border, U.S.-Mexico border, ISIS, ISIL, DHS