Federal authorities caught a terrorist at the U.S. southern border then released him into the country — where he roamed freely for nearly a year until his arrest in Minnesota just days ago.
According to an internal federal memo obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, the unnamed individual identified only as a member of the Somali terror group al-Shabaab was released into the U.S. after he was apprehended at the border near San Ysidro, California in March 2023.
The memo sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials explains the Terrorist Screening Center “deemed him a ‘mismatch’” after running his name through the terror watchlist.
But the memo states that on January 18, 2024, the Terrorist Screening Center “made a redetermination” that the individual was “a confirmed member of al-Shabaab” and was involved in the use, manufacture or transport of explosives or firearms.
This comes amid reports the Border Patrol caught 172 terror watchlist suspects attempting to illegally enter the U.S. during fiscal year 2023.
The Border Patrol continued to catch another 50 illegal immigrants on the terror watchlist between October and December 2023.
“Many within the Biden administration, including Secretary Mayorkas, have repeatedly assured us that the vetting process at the border is comprehensive and complete,” John Fabbricatore, a retired ICE field director who now sits on the National Immigration Center for Enforcement’s (NICE) board, told the DCNF.
“However, we continue to witness alarming instances where terrorists are able to freely roam the United States for months after being released at the border before their criminal and terrorist histories come to light.”
The U.S. has considered Al-Shabaab a terrorist organization since 2008.
“Al-Shabaab has carried out bombings, including suicide attacks, and the group has assassinated Somali peace activists, international aid workers, journalists and numerous civil society figures, according to the National Counterterrorism Center. The terror group carried out a 2013 attack on Westgate mall in Nairobi, killing 67 people, and in 2017 killed hundreds of civilians in Mogadishu through two suicide attacks,” the DCNF reported.
A group of former high-level FBI officials warned Congress in a letter last week that Biden’s open-border policies are putting the American people in “imminent danger.”
“Military-aged men from across the globe, many from countries or regions not friendly to the United States are landing in waves on our soil by the thousands — not by splashing ashore from a ship or parachuting from a plane but rather by foot across a border that has been accurately advertised around the world as largely unprotected and with ready access granted,” the letter stated.
“It is stark to say so, but having a large number of young males now within our borders who could begin attacking gatherings of unarmed citizens, in imitation of 10/7 and at the behest of a foreign terror group, must be considered a distinct possibility,” the officials added.