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illegal immigration

House Committee Demands Answer on Eight Tajik Border Crossers Arrested for Terror Plot

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By Todd Bensman as published June 17, 2024 by The New York Post

House Republicans are demanding answers after an FBI counterterrorism sting in three major US cities reportedly rolled up eight Tajik nationals who’d crossed the US Southwest Border and were planning a terrorist bombing.

In a new letter, House Homeland Security Committee Mark Green and several subcommittee leaders are demanding that Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of Homeland Security, disclose whether border agencies could have known of terrorism connections when the Tajik Eight first crossed, and how those agencies handled the immigrants after their releases through to the moment the FBI alerted them about plot.

At least some of the Tajik Eight crossed more than a year prior to their early June 2024 arrests by ICE. And the undercover FBI sting operation was underway for quite some time, according to media reporting.

Their letter points to an NBC news report that ICE in the first week of June arrested the Tajik Eight on immigration-related charges only “after the FBI alerted them that the men possessed a connection to the terrorist group ISIS.”

The lawmakers are investigating whether overwhelmed border agency personnel are able to properly screen terrorists and other criminals.

The committee cites my report listing seven accidental terror suspect releases – each a counterterrorism intelligence failure – and its call for forceful congressional intervention and concerted government investigation.

“Unfortunately, the unacceptable security failures that have allowed individuals with terrorist ties to enter the United States through the Southwest Border have become an alarming pattern under the administration,” the letter states.

Six suspected terrorists with ISIS ties arrested in sting operation in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia: sources

The committee, which holds special oversight responsibility for all homeland security-related government activity, wants the immigration files on all eight suspects, communications between the FBI and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would reveal how the eight arrested immigrants were handled after their border crossings, and all derogatory information in the terrorist watch list database about them.

They want a briefing by June 27 and the documents and records later.

But if history is any indication, Mayorkas is likely to ignore this reasonable public interest request.

Mayorkas has already blown off an April 3, 2024 committee information request about two of the DHS accidental releases of border-crossing suspected terrorists on the FBI watch list “due to errors within ICE’s internal database.”

An especially egregious security failure happened with the accidental border release of Afghan national Mohammad Kharwin, who was already on the FBI’s terrorism watch list for his associations with the US-designated terrorist organization Hezb-e-Islami.

Border Patrol released him into ICE custody into the so-called “Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program on March 12, 2023 after his illegal crossing from Mexico into California. He remained free for nearly a year until his arrest in San Antonio.

“The Department’s prioritization of catch, process, and release, presents a grave danger to national security,” the letter said. “The Committee has repeatedly and forcefully highlighted the security vulnerabilities inherent in the massive influx of illegal aliens at our border. The Biden Administration and the Department, however, continue to hide their heads in the sand, ignoring the ‘blinking red lights’ everywhere.”

Todd Bensman, a senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, is the author of “America’s Covert Border War” (2021).

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Daily Caller

Musk Reveals To Tucker Why He Thinks 2024 Will Be Last Election If Dems Win

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation 

 

By Nicole Silverio

Tech billionaire Elon Musk said Monday that he believes Democrats will eliminate swing states if they are re-elected in the 2024 election.

Musk said during an interview with Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson that Democrats will legalize the status of illegal immigrants, which will in turn allow them to become citizens and vote in future elections. He said that this scenario would turn the U.S. into a “single party country,” as the illegal immigrants voting in elections will largely back Democratic candidates.

“My prediction is if there’s another 4 years of a [Democrat] administration, they will legalize so many illegals that are there that the next election there won’t be any swing states,” Musk told Carlson. “And we’ll be a single party country just like California is a single party state. It’s a super majority Dem state in California.”

The tech mogul said there will not be another election if Republican nominee Donald Trump does not win in November, causing him to endorse and support the former president.

“My view is that if Trump doesn’t win this election, it’s the last election we’re gonna have,” Musk said. “That the Dem machine has been importing so many people, bringing in so many illegals … they’re transporting large numbers of illegals to swing states. If you look at the numbers, these are the numbers from the government website, so like from the Democrat administrative government website … and there are triple digit numbers of illegals to all the swing states and in some cases, it’s 700% in the last three years.”

Musk further criticized California’s new law banning local governments from requiring voter identification.

The D.C. Council passed the “Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act” in 2022 to allow non-citizens to cast ballots in local elections. House Democrats urged members in May to oppose a Republican-led bill to bar the city government from allowing illegal immigrants to vote in local elections.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN’s Jake Tapper in September that several states, including swing states, have found “thousands of non-citizens” are registered to vote, warning these illegal votes could “determine the outcome of the [2024] election.” Trump and Johnson discussed drafting legislation to require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in April, NBC News reported.

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illegal immigration

Bombshell report: ‘High risk noncitizens’ without IDs flying across U.S.

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From The Center Square

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Feds don’t know how many noncitizens were released into US without identification

Twenty-three years after Islamic terrorists used airplanes to conduct the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, the federal agency created to protect Americans from national security threats “cannot ensure they are keeping high-risk noncitizens without identification from entering the country.”

The potentially high-risk noncitizens are being flown on domestic flights without identification, creating a public safety risk, according to the latest Office of Inspector General report assessing several federal agencies within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The OIG has repeatedly published reports identifying potential national security risks created by Biden-Harris policies identified within DHS and its subagencies.

In the latest redacted report that has “sensitive security information,” the OIG expressed concerns about Americans’ public safety to the administrators of the Transportation Security Administration, US Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Under current processes, CBP and ICE cannot ensure they are keeping high-risk noncitizens without identification from entering the country. Additionally, TSA cannot ensure its vetting and screening procedures prevent high-risk noncitizens who may pose a threat to the flying public from boarding domestic flights.”

The report states the agencies didn’t assess risks to public safety by releasing non-citizens into the United States without identification and putting them on domestic flights.

The OIG requested data on the number of noncitizens without identification who were released into the United States from fiscal years 2021 through 2023. “Because immigration officers are not required to document whether a noncitizen presented identification in the databases,” the data the OIG obtained “may be incomplete.”

“Therefore, neither CBP nor ICE could determine how many of the millions of noncitizens seeking entry in the United States each year entered without identification and whose self-reported biographic information was accepted,” the report states. CBP and ICE officers interviewed by the OIG “acknowledged the risks of allowing noncitizens without identification into the country, yet neither CBP nor ICE conducted a comprehensive risk assessment for these noncitizens to assess the level of risk these individuals present and developed corresponding mitigation measures,” the report states.

One of the primary responsibilities of CBP and ICE is to verify noncitizens’ identities prior to seeking entry; TSA is responsible for screening everyone who boards domestic flights. The OIG audited them to determine to what extent CBP and ICE policies and procedures confirmed individual’s identities “for the documents TSA accepts for domestic travel and whether TSA ensures noncitizens traveling on domestic flights provide proof of identification consistent with all other domestic travelers.”

As Border Patrol officials have explained, the majority of illegal border crossers are not vetted and released with DHS papers. The OIG confirms this, stating CBP and ICE officers accept “self-reported biographical information, which they use to issue various immigration forms. Once in the United States, noncitizens can travel on domestic flights.”

The OIG also notes that noncitizens do not have TSA-acceptable identification but “are allowed to board domestic flights.” TSA requires them “to undergo vetting and additional screening,” which involves running their information through systems to validate information on DHS–issued immigration forms and conducting additional screening procedures like pat downs.

“TSA’s vetting and screening procedures do not eliminate the risk that noncitizens who may pose a threat to fellow passengers could board domestic flights,” the OIG report says.

It gets worse, the OIG says.

“Under current processes, CBP and ICE cannot ensure they are keeping high-risk noncitizens without identification from entering the country. Additionally, TSA cannot ensure its vetting and screening procedures prevent high-risk noncitizens who may pose a threat to the flying public from boarding domestic flights.”

The 37-page redacted report details the procedures that must be followed according to federal law and notes in bold: “CBP and ICE have policies and procedures for screening noncitizens, but neither component knows how many noncitizens without identification documents are released into the country.”

Security issues also exist with the CBP One app, which has been used to fast track over 813,000 inadmissible illegal foreign nationals into the country, The Center Square reported.

These issues are redacted. “Because of CBP’s and ICE’s process for inspecting and releasing noncitizens, TSA’s methods to screen for individuals who pose a threat would not necessarily prevent these individuals from boarding flights,” the OIG warns.

It also points out that it has released previous reports where its office “documented similar weaknesses in CBP’s screening processes that allowed high-risk individuals into the country,” including those on the terrorist watchlist.

It concludes, “If CBP and ICE continue to allow noncitizens – whose identities immigration officers cannot confirm – to enter the country, they may inadvertently increase national security risks.”

The agencies did not concur with the OIG’s findings. In response, the OIG, as prescribed by a DHS directive, gave them 90 days to respond and provide corrective action that would be taken as well as a target completion date for each recommendation.

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