In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Representatives Mark Green, R-Texas, August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Clay Higgins, R-Louis, asked for information about U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s digesting and detention procedures for illegal aliens previously identified on the national database known as the Terrorist Screening Dataset, which contains delicate information on criminal identities.
Members of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security learned that Border Patrol agents are releasing known or suspected terrorists ( KSTs ) into the nation following the release of the information. In governmental 2023, the greatest amount of KSTs, 736, were apprehended at the northern and southern borders, The Center Square reported. According to CBP information, 210 known or suspected jihadists were apprehended trying to enter the United States improperly on March 22. At the north borders, most people are being detained.
The Center Square reports that Green chairs the U. S. House Committee on Homeland Security, Pfluger chairs the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, Higgins chairs the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement.
The politicians wrote that” the committee is concerned about DHS’s current methods regarding the control and release of known or suspected jihadists encountered at the Southwest border.” Since the start of the fiscal year 2021, over 350 improper foreign citizens have been apprehended trying to cross the southwest border illegally between ports of entry.
Additionally, according to them, their workers have spoken with DHS numerous times since Feb. 1, 2024, to verify and clarify the details of reports of KST releases into the nation.
” But, our inquiries have not been answered”, they said. We are currently facing a constant supply of cases highlighted in the news about aliens suspected of being on the terrorist watch list being detained at the border or found in the interior, in addition to these unresolved inquiries for information.
The Center Square summarizes some of the certain situations that the members of Congress have cited.
They cite various cases. One of the cases involves a Somali national who had been detained by immigration and customs police in Minnesota after entering the country without authorization for a time. The Somali, apparently a part of the Ethiopian extremist group cetera- Shabaab, was caught and released by Border Patrol agents in San Ysidro, California, in March 2023.
A Palestinian man connected to the Iranian-backed criminal organization Hezbollah is another. In March of this year, he reportedly told federal agencies that he planned to bomb New York while being detained between ports of entry.
Another case is the one of an Egyptian man who allegedly attacked law enforcement officers in a stand-off with officials from his tent de in North Carolina last month after opening fire on a pleasure store where he worked. After residing in Haiti for six months, he apparently illegally entered the United States.
Another incident involved a Muslim man who had entered the country without authorization and was detained by Border Patrol. The Terrorist Screening Center confirmed his inclusion on the terror blacklist less than two weeks later. Despite this, Mayorkas ‘ Alternatives to Detention Program, which the politicians had deemed illegal, allowed ICE officials to release him.
