Border brokers detained three Palestinian migrants who illegally crossed the southern border after they had been discovered to have doable ties to terrorist organizations earlier this month, based on sources.
One of many migrants had “salacious photographs” on their telephone — together with an image of a masked man holding an AK-47 rifle, federal legislation enforcement sources mentioned.
Along with the three Palestinians, federal authorities caught one migrant from Turkey who was additionally suspected of getting ties to terror teams.
The migrants had been half a gaggle of dozens of migrants who turned themselves into border brokers on the San Diego sector, mentioned sources.
An investigation into the migrants is ongoing, sources mentioned. The group was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Process Power is investigating their circumstances.
It’s the newest instance of potential safety threats coming into the US by way of the southern border — particularly at San Diego.
Overwhelmed Border Patrol brokers inform The Put up that they don’t have the instruments to totally vet the migrants who’re coming in from all around the world — significantly into the San Diego space.
Principally, they’re solely ready to make use of US terror watchlists and different American assets to assist decide which migrants might be a terror menace. Border brokers do not need entry to terror or prison databases from different international locations.
“Realizing who these guys are, now we have, like, no entry to something worldwide. Like, we actually don’t and it form of sucks,” mentioned one border agent, who spoke nameless as a result of they weren’t licensed to present public statements.
“I wished to get into Border Patrol and shield from terrorists. And it’s like, properly, I in all probability let terrorists within the nation.”
A Customs and Border Safety spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
It’s unclear which terrorist group the migrants had been allegedly affiliated with.
Nonetheless, border brokers within the San Diego sector had been warned to be looking out for people tied to Palestinian terrorist teams after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror assault on Israel.
“San Diego Subject Workplace Intelligence Unit assesses that people impressed by, or reacting to the present Israel-Hamas battle could try journey to or from the realm of hostilities within the Center East by way of circuitous transit throughout the Southwest border,” the earlier alert learn.
“International fighters motivated by ideology or mercenary troopers of fortune could try to obfuscate journey to or from the US to or from international locations within the Center East via Mexico,” the memo provides, earlier than itemizing the patches of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.
The migrants crossed the border simply weeks after the Biden administration instituted new insurance policies that limit the flexibility of migrants to request asylum — although the manager order has has main loopholes permitting migrants to nonetheless be launched into the nation.
San Diego space has the largest loopholes as a result of migrants who arrive there from greater than 100 international locations that gained’t settle for deportees are exempt from the restrictions and are allowed to entry the asylum system.
Because of this, migrants from all around the world — together with India, China and Central Asian nations which are main ISIS recruiting grounds — are flocking to San Diego.
The circulate of migrants has slowed general with the brand new restrictions mixed with the summer time warmth, border brokers nonetheless have considerations about terrorists making an attempt to enter illegally and those they’ve already let loose as a result of their international locations fail to share info on them.
Final month, ICE brokers in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia arrested eight Tajik nationals believed to be tied to ISIS, all of whom crossed the southern border in recent times, as first revealed by The Put up.
The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) has additionally been making an attempt to trace down 50 migrants who had been introduced into the US with the assistance of an ISIS-tied smuggling group.
Brokers have additionally caught report numbers of unlawful migrants whose names seem on the fear watchlist as border crossings have skyrocketed below the Biden administration. Between fiscal years 2017 and 2020, border brokers caught 26 terror watchlisted people on the southern border, based on federal information.
That quantity rapidly jumped to 98 in fiscal yr 2022 alone, adopted by 169 the following yr.
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