Border Patrol agents arrested more illegal immigrants whose names appeared on the terror watchlist between October and January than in fiscal years 2017 through 2021 combined, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data updated on Tuesday.
Border Patrol captured 59 illegal immigrants on the terror watchlist nationwide in four months, according to federal data. Between fiscal year 2017 and 2021, Border Patrol caught 30 individuals whose names appeared on the watchlist.
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Border Patrol apprehensions of terror watchlisted migrants hit 172 in fiscal year 2023 and 98 in fiscal year 2022.
The Daily Caller News Foundation has reported on an influx of terror-watchlisted migrants illegally crossing the southern border.
On Feb. 5, Border Patrol arrested an Afghan national whose name appeared on the terror watchlist after he crossed the southern border illegally into California, according to an internal federal memo exclusively obtained by the DCNF. ICE officers in Minnesota arrested in January a member of the Somali terror group al-Shabaab, who crossed the southern border illegally, after authorities had released him.
Border agents on Feb. 6 arrested an individual who crossed the southern border illegally and admitted his previous ties to a Colombian terrorist organization, according to an internal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) memo exclusively obtained by the DCNF.
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Federal authorities released for one day a Pakistani national who illegally crossed the southern border into California in November whose name appeared on the terror watchlist, according to an ICE memo reviewed by the DCNF.
Federal authorities also warned Border Patrol after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel to keep watch for Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah terrorists possibly crossing the southern border illegally, according to an internal memo exclusively obtained by the DCNF.
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