Federal immigration authorities arrested an illegal immigrant wanted in Senegal for alleged terrorist activities, two weeks after he was released into the country after being met by agents at the southern border.
In a press release, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says a 29-year-old “unlawfully present national of Mauritania or Senegal” was arrested on October 17.
ICE says he is wanted by Senegalese authorities for criminal conspiracy in connection with a terrorist organization. destruction, degradation and damage in connection with a terrorist organization; direct provocation of an armed crowd and acts (or preparatory acts) aimed at endangering public security.
GRASSLEY SOUNDS ALARM POTENTIAL DRONE THREAT ON SOUTHERN BORDER Amid HAMAS TERROR CONCERNS
June 2, 2022: ICE agents conduct an enforcement operation inside the US. ((Immigration and Customs Enforcement))
But he had first been encountered on Oct. 3 — two weeks earlier — by Border Patrol agents at the southern border near Lukeville, Arizona. He was then processed by officials and served with a notice to appear in New York and released on his own recognizance.
A week after his release, on October 10, ICE Homeland Security Investigations agents notified Enforcement and Removal Operations in New York that he was wanted on terrorism charges in Senegal.
ICE’s Fugitive Operations team in New York then arrested him “without incident” outside the Federal Plaza immigration courthouse in New York. He is now in custody for deportation proceedings.
“Non-citizens involved in or suspected of supporting terrorism pose a direct threat to our nation’s national security and will be swiftly removed from the United States,” said ERO New York Field Office Director Kenneth Genalo. “ERO New York City will use every tool at our disposal to protect American citizens and residents from those who mistakenly believe they can take advantage of our immigration laws to escape justice in other countries.”
But the release of a foreign national wanted on terrorism charges in another country is likely to fuel ongoing concerns about terrorists or terror suspects entering the U.S. at the beleaguered southern border — particularly after Hamas’s terror attack on Israel. Border Patrol agents have expressed concerns to Fox News before that unless someone has committed a crime in the U.S., agents may not know an immigrant’s criminal history because many countries do not share their databases with the U.S.
Republicans have separately raised concerns about the number of terrorist watch-list encounters at the southern border, which hit a record in FY23, as well as the number of “alien special interests” encountered — in addition to the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants he evaded agents as “fugitives”.
MALLORCA CONFIRMES OVER 600,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AVOIDED LAW ENFORCEMENT AT SOUTHERN BORDER MORE FINANCIAL YEAR
Recently, a CBP memo warned agents about the possibility that foreign fighters linked to terrorist groups like Hamas could try to enter the U.S. — though CBP stressed that it has seen no evidence of fighters trying to do so.
The Department of Homeland Security The fiscal 2024 threat assessment warned that agents have encountered a growing number on the watch list and warned that “terrorists and criminals may take advantage of the increased flow and increasingly complex security environment to enter the United States.”
BORDER STOPS RECORD NUMBER OF PEOPLE ON TERROR WATCH LIST AT SOUTHERN BORDER
DHS emphasized that it has “multi-layered border security efforts,” including screening and vetting, and has also said that encounters with known or suspected terrorists are unusual.
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“Our border security efforts include biometric and biographic screening and screening,” a DHS official said this week. “CBP screens and vets every person they encounter, and if an individual is determined to be a potential threat to national security or public safety, in coordination with the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), we either deny admission, detain, remove or refer to other federal agencies for further review and prosecution as appropriate.”
