Federal brokers are arresting a report variety of people on the terrorist watchlist on the northern U.S. border, together with a Jordanian nationwide with ties to terrorism who not too long ago was faraway from the nation after illegally coming into from Canada.
Border Patrol brokers within the U.S. Customs and Border Safety Blaine Sector apprehended Jordanian nationwide Mohammad Hasan Abdellatif Albana, 41, close to Lynden, Washington, a couple of miles from the Canadian border.
Lynden is roughly 22 miles to Aldergrove in British Columbia. There are 13 land ports of entry on the U.S.-Canada border in Washington, together with the Lynden-Aldergrove Port of Entry. The POE is known for the 1979 homicide of U.S. Customs inspector Kenneth Ward, who was shot whereas performing a car inspection by members of far-left home terrorist group the Symbionese Liberation Military.
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Albana illegally “entered the U.S. with out being admitted, inspected or paroled by a U.S. immigration official,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement mentioned. He would have been thought of a “gotaway” if he hadn’t been caught. Gotaways is the official CBP time period for international nationals who illegally enter between ports of entry to deliberately evade seize and aren’t caught.
As soon as apprehended, he was recognized as a match on the terrorist watchlist, processed for elimination, and eliminated to Jordan on Nov. 15 as a result of he posed “a threat to the nationwide safety of the U.S.,” ICE mentioned.
Albana was amongst 44 people who’ve been arrested and recognized as a identified or suspected terrorist (KST) this fiscal 12 months, based on CBP information final up to date Nov. 20. By comparability, 8 KSTs had been apprehended on the southwest border over the identical time-period.
As The Heart Sq. first reported, the best variety of KSTs are being apprehended on the US-Canada border.
General, the best variety of KSTs have been apprehend underneath the Biden administration in U.S. historical past: 1,903.
The bulk, 64%, totaling 1,216, had been apprehended on the northern border coming from Canada between fiscal years 2021-2024, based on CBP information.
A report 687 KSTs had been reported on the southwest border over the identical time interval.
CBP publicly reviews 4 KST information units: apprehensions at land ports of entry and between ports of entry on the U.S.-Canada and US-Mexico borders. Information is reported by fiscal 12 months, from Oct. 1 via Sept. 30.
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These recognized as KSTs are matched to the Terrorist Screening Dataset, the federal authorities’s database that incorporates delicate data on terrorist identities. The TSDS originated as a consolidated terrorist watchlist to carry data on identified or suspected terrorists. Over the previous decade, it developed “to incorporate further people who signify a possible menace to the USA, together with identified associates of watchlisted people,” CBP says.
Over the past 4 years, most congressional reviews and information reviews have solely centered on KSTs apprehended between ports of entry on the southwest border, ignoring the better quantity apprehended, and unknown quantity illegally coming into, on the northern border.
Since 2017, the best variety of KSTs have been apprehended yearly on the northern border, besides in 2019, The Heart Sq. first reported. The best quantity apprehended in U.S. historical past on the northern border was 487 in fiscal 2023.
Below the Biden administration, 1,209 KSTs had been apprehended at US-Canada ports of entry and 7 between ports of entry. Against this, 989 KSTs had been apprehended on the southwest border; 604 at ports of entry and 385 between ports of entry.
“The report variety of individuals on the terrorist watchlist coming throughout the northern border” disproves the “most safe border on the earth” declare made by Canadian officers, President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, advised The Heart Sq.. “It’s actually basic math,” he mentioned, pointing to CBP information. “What they received’t inform you’re the unknown gotaways coming via the northern border.”
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In contrast to the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border, there are not any border partitions and considerably much less technological tools and brokers to patrol the U.S.-Canada border, the longest worldwide border on the earth totaling 5,525 miles, The Heart Sq. reported.
As a result of there are far fewer Border Patrol brokers within the area, much less technological surveillance and a lack of operational management, mixed with nationwide safety threats posed by Canadian insurance policies, amongst different elements, the variety of KSTs who’ve illegally entered from Canada between ports of entry is unknown, border officers inform The Heart Sq.. In contrast to the southwest border, the place brokers within the area can monitor unlawful entry and report gotaways, no comparable functionality exists on the northern border, the place one agent could also be chargeable for 500 miles.
“There’s all the time been a nationwide safety vulnerability there; it stays a nationwide safety vulnerability,” Homan advised The Heart Sq.. “There are a whole lot of miles of open border that’s not being patrolled and that’s only a stone-cold truth.”
Homan advised The Heart Sq. the Trump administration will safe the northern and southwest borders.
Syndicated with permission from The Heart Sq..
