ICE confirmed to the Daily Caller that it arrested an al-Shabaab terrorist after he spent a year in America:
A member of the Somalia-based al-Shabaab terrorist group was caught entering the U.S. illegally in March of 2023, but was soon released into the country and roamed free for nearly a year before he was arrested in Minnesota by ICE in January, according to an internal agency memo obtained exclusively by the DCNF. ICE Acting Director Patrick Lechleitner confirmed the terrorist was arrested “within 48 hours” of the agency learning that he was actually on the terror watch list. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Terrorist Caught Illegally Crossing The Border Was Allowed To Roam Free For Nearly A Year, Memo Says)“I can say that for this individual, within 20 – within 48 hours, excuse me – of ICE becoming aware of his status as on the watch list, within 48 hours, he was apprehended,” Lechleitner said during a press briefing on Thursday. “I want to commend our personnel because as soon as we became aware of that, within 48 hours, he was apprehended and [now] he’s currently in ICE custody.”
But it is not ICE’s fault. The man crossed illegally, was released, and only matched after a year.
The border patrol and ICE have been overwhelmed for years due to Biden.
The memo received by the Daily Caller stated that the Terrorist Screening Center ran his name through the system. It came up as a mismatch.
But then the Terrorist Screening Center determined the man belonged to al-Shabaab.
As soon as the center made the determination, ICE sprang into action and arrested him in Minnesota.
The Daily Caller did not detail how the center redetermined the man’s status. The publication did not share the memo to conceal the confidential source’s identity.
One ICE official told the Daily Caller, “People have been released prior to completed records checks being returned on a subject. Which would not allow proper processing and placement of a potential terrorist once those results were known.”
John Fabbricatore, a retired ICE field director, explained it could take a long time to retrieve the entire background check: “The overburdening of the Border Patrol with the excessive amounts of illegal border crossers has forced faster processing times, which doesn’t allow for a more vigorous initial investigation into a migrants background. The background checks currently being run only initially search out criminal history in the United States, not outside its borders. It could take days, weeks, or months to connect derogatory information coming from other databases.”
I’m not shocked ICE arrested the man in Minnesota. The state has a large Somalian population, which is the home of al-Shabaab.
Bill Melugin at Fox News reported via X that the majority of border crossings have shifted to Arizona and California from Texas.
Since the summer, we have seen migrant waves flood into Arizona, overwhelming the border patrol. Many of the migrants had to stay in outside cages. (I never saw AOC).
Texas has clamped down it’s border so it makes sense the shift is growing.
“Per CBP sources, over the last week of January, Border Patrol apprehended 32,809 illegal immigrants,” wrote Melugin. “23,576 of them (71.8%) were in AZ & CA.”
Eagle Pass, TX, the location of the current fight between the state and feds, saw up to 4,000 crossings a day in December.
Last week, Eagle Pass crossings averaged 200.
Melugin offered two potential reasons:
Texas has locked things down on their side of the border, and Mexico has increased enforcement against migrants arriving in the MX state of Coahuila following Sec. of State Antony Blinken’s visit to MX in December.Mexico is now suddenly stopping migrants from boarding trains, and is removing migrants from their northern border down to their southern border following that meeting. And the migrants who do cross there now find a very unwelcoming posture from the state of TX with legions of soldiers, troopers, and razor wire, & threat of arrest. It is unknown what the US offered MX in return for this cooperation.
Border patrol sources told Melugin agents apprehended 5,240 illegal immigrants at the border.
The agents took in 3.854 of them in Arizona and California. That’s 73.5%.
It’s insane what is going on.
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