Border Patrol agents apprehended six undocumented border crossers on Friday and Saturday at the U.S.-Mexico border who were on the country’s terror watchlist, authorities said.
Five men were caught by border agents attempting to cross the border in Arizona’s Tucson Sector on Saturday, shortly after the immigration policy Title 42 ended. The men were caught in separate incidents throughout the day. One of the men, who was grabbed near Ajo, Arizona, was identified as a Pakistani national, reported The Washington Examiner.
Another man on the terror watch list was arrested on Friday in Otay Mesa in San Diego, California. A fingerprint scan conducted after the man was apprehended revealed that he was an Afghan migrant on the database.
The men were all non-U.S. citizens who were on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), which compiles records of known or suspected terrorists, or individuals who associate with them.
The identities of the individuals were not disclosed for security reasons. Their cases will be referred to the bureau’s joint terrorism task force, reported The New York Post.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has arrested at least 82 suspected or known terrorists so far this fiscal year, which began in October. The figure is likely set to break the total number of terror watchlist apprehensions recorded in 2022, which set a new record at 98.
In comparison, CBP agents apprehended 16 non-U.S. citizens on the terror watchlist at the border in 2021 and less than 10 individuals every year between 2017 and 2020.
In April alone, Border Agents encountered 16 individuals on the TSDB attempting to cross the border, according to CBP statistics.
"Those 16 individuals are only the ones we know about. Imagine how many have crossed Biden's open border undetected," the Republican House Homeland Security Committee account tweeted, referring to the increasing number of gotaways that made it into the country undetected.
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