Federal brokers are arresting a file variety of people on the terrorist watchlist on the northern U.S. border, together with a Jordanian nationwide with ties to terrorism who lately was faraway from the nation after illegally getting 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, just a few 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 legendary 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 said. He would have been thought-about a “gotaway” if he hadn’t been caught. Gotaways is the official CBP time period for overseas 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 removing, and eliminated to Jordan on Nov. 15 as a result of he posed “a threat to the nationwide safety of the U.S.,” ICE stated.
Albana was amongst 44 people who’ve been arrested and recognized as a recognized or suspected terrorist (KST) this fiscal yr, in line with CBP data final up to date Nov. 20. By comparability, 8 KSTs have 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, have been apprehended on the northern border coming from Canada between fiscal years 2021-2024, in line with CBP knowledge.
A file 687 KSTs have been reported on the southwest border over the identical time interval.
CBP publicly stories 4 KST knowledge 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 yr, 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 accommodates delicate data on terrorist identities. The TSDS originated as a consolidated terrorist watchlist to carry data on recognized or suspected terrorists. Over the previous decade, it advanced “to incorporate extra people who characterize a possible menace to the USA, together with recognized associates of watchlisted people,” CBP says.
During the last 4 years, most congressional stories and information stories have solely centered on KSTs apprehended between ports of entry on the southwest border, ignoring the higher quantity apprehended, and unknown quantity illegally getting 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.
Beneath the Biden administration, 1,209 KSTs have been apprehended at US-Canada ports of entry and 7 between ports of entry. In contrast, 989 KSTs have been apprehended on the southwest border; 604 at ports of entry and 385 between ports of entry.
“The file variety of individuals on the terrorist watchlist coming throughout the northern border” disproves the “most safe border on the planet” declare made by Canadian officers, President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told The Center Square. “It’s actually basic math,” he stated, pointing to CBP knowledge. “What they gained’t inform you’re the unknown gotaways coming via the northern border.”
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Not like the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border, there aren’t any border partitions and considerably much less technological gear and brokers to patrol the U.S.-Canada border, the longest worldwide border on the planet 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 control, mixed with national security threats posed by Canadian 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.. Not like 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 at all times been a nationwide safety vulnerability there; it stays a nationwide safety vulnerability,” Homan informed 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 reality.”
Homan informed The Heart Sq. the Trump administration will safe the northern and southwest borders.
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
