US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has released an immigrant on a terrorist watch list for ineffective practices within the department, a new report finds.
On April 17, 2022, authorities inspected immigrants in Yuma, Arizona and determined they were not a terrorist threat. It is separately indicated that additional screenings will take place at Palm Springs International Airport in a few days. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was only able to arrest the immigrant two weeks after discovery due to internal complications in the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General’s Office of Transfer Operations. report.
The two-week delay was due to ineffective information sharing between ICE, Enforcement Elimination Operations (ERO) and Terrorist Testing Center (TSC), the report said. Examples of this include not using the correct email address for government agencies. “CBP sent a request for an interview with the immigrant to the wrong email address, obtained but did not share the information requested by TSC, and released the immigrant before it was fully reconciled.” the report said.
NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 6: ICE officials monitor hundreds of asylum seekers being processed as they enter the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City on June 6, 2023. (Photo Credit: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
After the migrant was tested in Yuma, officials reportedly did not wait to confirm that the National Targeting Center (NTC) and TSC had finished testing him. According to the report, Yuma authorities pushed immigrants forward without waiting for confirmation because they “did not have an adequate way to flag anyone who did not match the definitive terrorist watch list.” (Related: Supreme Court sides with Biden in immigration enforcement plan)
In addition, Yuma officials said the influx of unrest has pushed capacity over and officials are under pressure to expedite immigration. After the immigrant was successfully identified in Palm Springs, formal arrest papers were sent in the mail, causing further delays as the arrestee did not receive formal arrest papers until eight days later.
During the escape operation, GPS complications made it even more difficult to locate the migrants. The migrants were monitored by GPS, but it was before working hours at the Tampa Alternate Detention Facility (ATD) that Operation Fugitive attempted to arrest them. ATD officers arrived at work at 7:00 a.m., located the migrant, and arrested him at 7:30 a.m.
“This OIG report sensationalizes and mischaracterizes a complex incident in which CBP and ICE officials took appropriate steps to ensure that no threat to the public existed,” DHS said. spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Non-citizens encountered by CBP will be thoroughly screened and screened, and individuals determined to pose a threat to national security or public safety will be detained.”
“The Department of Homeland Security is committed to the protection of the American people and the security of our borders, and we are constantly working to improve information sharing and fulfill our critical mission,” the spokesman said.
In the first five months of 2023, 69 migrants have been arrested for being on a terrorist watch list. Last year, 98 of the 2.3 million migrants CBP encountered at the border in 2022 were seized.
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