Suspected Terrorist in U.S. Dropped from Monitoring Program After Less than a Month: Report

By: Jason Hopkins, Daily Caller News Foundation

An Afghan national on the terrorist watchlist and living in the United States was dropped from a government monitoring program after only about two weeks, NBC News reported.

Mohammad Kharwin, a 48-year-old Afghan who entered the U.S. illegally and was later determined to be on the terror watchlist, was almost immediately taken off Alternatives to Detention, a program that tracked his location via ankle monitor, telephone or mobile app, sources familiar with the matter told NBC.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) first arrested Kharwin on March 10, 2023 near San Ysidro, California, after he was observed crossing into the U.S. unlawfully. However, CBP officials were not fully aware of his background, as such he was regarded as any other low-threat migrant entering the U.S. and released.

When CBP released Kharwin, he was enrolled into Alternatives to Detention, a program run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that tracks illegal aliens and other migrants awaiting years-long court proceedings in the U.S., in lieu of them remaining in overcrowded detention facilities.

Kharwin was officially enrolled in the tracking program on March 12, 2023, but then taken off of it on March 28, 2023, NBC reported.

It’s not immediately clear why he was taken out of the program so quickly. The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to ICE, which oversees the program, but did not immediately receive a response.

Around a year after his release into the U.S., ICE agents apprehended Kharwin when the FBI shared information indicating he had potential ties to Hezbo-e-Islami, otherwise known as HIG, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization based in Afghanistan. The paramilitary group is held responsible for the deaths of at least nine U.S. soldiers and civilians from 2013 to 2015.

Reporting on Kharwin’s potential terror ties follows other recent negative stories about ICE’s Alternative to Detention program.

The agency announced on Tuesday that they made sweeping arrests of illegal aliens who violated the conditions of the program. The brother of Lakin Riley’s alleged killer, Diego Ibarra, had also been placed into the tracking program in May 2023. He was later arrested for trying to use fraudulent documents, had a number of previous run-ins with law enforcement, and is believed to have ties to a Venezuelan gang.

“This program is a privilege, and when it is abused, there will be consequences,” [Enforcement and Removal Operations] Denver acting Field Office Director Arthur J. Wilson Jr., speaking about Alternatives to Detention, said in a statement released on Tuesday.