Do You Still Feel Safe from Another Terrorist Account?

Jennie Taer reported that a Pakistani man who illegally crossed our southern border was caught and released by federal immigration authorities. He was released even though his name is on a terror watchlist. 

The Pakistani national entered the U.S. illegally Nov. 9 and was nabbed by the Border Patrol the next day in Tecate, California, according to the memo [from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] which was received from two different sources in the Department of Homeland Security, parent agency to both ICE and the Border Patrol.

While the Pakistani was in Border Patrol custody Nov. 22, the Terrorism Screening Center confirmed that he was a positive match on the terror watchlist, according to the memo.

Despite this, the memo says, the terror suspect was released Jan. 23 from the custody of ICE’s San Diego office after the agency served him with an Order of Release on Recognizance with tracking technology through a program called Alternatives to Detention.

Border agents served the Pakistani with an expedited removal order Nov 11, after which he said that he had a credible fear of going back to Pakistan, according to the memo.

On Jan. 24, however, the ICE office in San Diego informed the agency’s office in Los Angeles of the man’s presence on the terror watchlist, along with his “mandatory detention requirement,” and had him report on his own to the Alternatives to Detention check-in office. ICE in Los Angeles was able to arrest him when he showed up for the check-in….

The Border Patrol caught 172 individuals on the terrorist watchlist attempting to enter the United States illegally in fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30. From October through December, the Border Patrol recorded 50 encounters with individuals on the terrorist watchlist, according to federal data.

Border Patrol agents also recorded 98 encounters with individuals on the terror watchlist in fiscal year 2022 and 16 in fiscal year 2021, according to the data.

Those figures add up to more than 325 people named on the terror watchlist who have been caught. How many other such people have not been caught? Do you remember the damage done to our nation by 18 terrorists on airliners on September 11, 2001. How much more damage can hundreds of terrorists do?