illegal immigration
Without A Reckoning, The First U.S. Terror Attack Caused By Open Borders Won’t Be The Last
From Todd Bensman from the Center for Immigration Studies as posted in The Federalist
Americans deserve a full-scale investigation into what happened in Chicago and how to prevent the next open-borders-enabled attack on U.S. soil.
Surprisingly little news coverage followed America’s first terror attack by an illegal border-crossing immigrant on U.S. soil. On Saturday, 22-year-old Mauritanian Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi was found dead of an apparent hanging suicide in his Cook County, Illinois jail cell. America must learn from this to prevent the next attacks on U.S. soil by border-infiltrating jihadists.
Abdallahi illegally jumped the border from Tijuana to San Diego in March 2023 and was freed by U.S. Border Patrol. Under orders from the Biden-Harris Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol has released millions of illegal entrants into the United States in the last four years.
On October 26, Abdallahi allegedly hunted down and shot in the back an identifiably Orthodox Jewish man walking to synagogue, then tried to up the body count by attacking responding police while shouting “Allahu Akbar!” Abdallahi still didn’t quit shooting even after police wounded him. Somehow he, the police, and the victim all survived.
This benchmarking story of America’s first terror attack by a border-crossing jihadist was largely ignored by national news media even though it came just before the brewing political war between pro-illegal immigrant Democrats and an incoming Trump administration promising an illegal immigration crackdown largely on national security grounds.
Now there will not even be a trial. Abdallahi’s sudden exit is no doubt privately regarded as a gift to pro-open borders advocates, their media sympathizers, and Democrat elected officials. But independent media and elected government must press for further details to prevent the next border-crossing terrorist attack.
What We Know So Far
At a late November arraignment reported on by a Chicago Fox News affiliate and the Chicago Sun-Times, prosecutors revealed that, while working at an Amazon warehouse, Abdallahi carefully planned his attack on Jewish targets due to jihadist ideology.
“This was not anything but a planned attack…an attempted assassination of these people,” Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord Rodgers told the court. “This was a calculated plan, on a public street…and attempted slaughter of that person and law enforcement officers.”
Abdallahi had mapped out the locations of two Chicago synagogues and a Jewish community, the conservative Chicago Sun-Times reported November 21. The search history also included “Jewish Community Center” and a gun store in suburban Lyons.
Once he shot the man in the back, Abdallahi displayed a relentless desire to increase his body count and seemed tactically aware of how to take out hard human targets like police officers. For example, his gun apparently jammed after shooting the Jewish victim, prosecutors said. He reportedly had the presence of mind to retreat to cover, fix the jam, then return to finish off the victim, but then retreated to cover again as first responders approached.
Abdallahi drove a few blocks around them, then returned on foot from a new direction and opened fire on four police officers and two paramedics tending the wounded man, prosecutors alleged. He then allegedly fired on the ambulance, hitting it twice as a fifth police officer returned fire.
Wounded, finally, Abdallahi fell. But he rose repeatedly to allegedly fire on the police even more before finally collapsing. Miraculously, none of his intended victims were hit.
This Case Has National Implications
The untold full story of Abdallahi’s illegal border crossing and attack in Chicago the next year, of course, goes beyond the evidence so far showing Abdallahi followed a violent ideology. Americans can no longer regard the possibility of Islamic terrorist infiltration from the southern border as merely a hypothetical bogeyman. Because of Chicago, no longer can the warnings of homeland security professionals like those quoted in my America’s Covert Border War book be dismissed as anti-immigrant fearmongering.
This terror attack and police gunbattle with an alleged border-crossing jihadist instead firmly justifies bipartisan public inquiry, public and private investigation, and analysis about border security policy that can stop future Abdallahis. After September 11, 2001, America justifiably worried about fixing the broken U.S. visa systems that 9/11 hijackers easily defrauded to enter the United States for that larger attack.
So far, the institutional media and government powers-that-be have managed to box up the Chicago incident as a mere local affair. It’s not even charged as a federal terrorism case.
Under pressure from Chicago’s Jewish community for Chicago officials to publicly acknowledge that a local Jewish man was violently attacked based on his religion, Cook County’s far-left, George Soros-backed State’s Attorney Kim Foxx (who leaves office next year) eventually charged Abdallahi with terrorism, under Illinois’ circa-9/11 terrorism statute.
This case demands intense national attention. Chicago’s attack is an uncontestable confirmation of the terrorism threat inherent in open borders policies. President Donald Trump promised throughout his campaign to reverse Democrats’ open border, catch-and-release policies. Yet open-borders advocates are organizing to wage political, information, and legal warfare to defeat Trump’s enforcement of U.S. immigration laws. Front-and-center attention on the Chicago terrorist attack would provide Americans the context they deserve during the melee over Trump’s planned illegal immigration fixes.
If the Chicago terror attack is allowed to fade away after Abdallahi’s burial, Americans will have been robbed of their ability to loudly petition for protection from the next such terror attack. The next attack could easily target the towns now vowing to “Trump-proof” themselves against policies that would deport other Abdallahis before they also can attack.
Questions Americans Deserve Answered
Failing to investigate this incident will likely leave the doors open to more such attacks. So far, there’s been no public sign of FBI or Department of Justice involvement in the Chicago case, as would be ordinary when Islamic terrorism is indicated in any attack on U.S. soil.
Ceding this case entirely to state and local authorities with less counterterrorism training and intelligence resources leaves too much on the table. For example: are co-conspirators or sympathizers who urged Abdallahi on still out there? Did foreign terrorism masters direct Abdallahi? Chicago police may be well-meaning and reasonably resourced, but counterterrorism is the FBI’s unique province.
If the bureau is not involved, why not? If it is, good, but to what extent did the FBI follow leads and intelligence and provide the results to Chicago PD (which may not hold the security clearances to ingest such information)? Might Chicago, a sanctuary city, even have refused to collaborate with the FBI for partisan reasons during a hotly contested presidential campaign?
Abdallahi reportedly did not flag on any terrorism or criminal databases when Border Patrol detained him in San Diego Sector. Was he ever detained and referred to the Border Patrol’s Tactical Terrorism Response Team or Immigration and Customs Enforcement intelligence officers for extended terrorism-related interviews? That is supposed to happen with “special interest aliens,” who get assigned that tag if they hail from designated countries of terrorism concern like Mauritania.
According to material obtained by the Center for Immigration Studies through a Freedom of Information Act request, Border Patrol apprehended 18,260 Mauritanians illegally crossing the U.S. southern border from 2021 through December 2023. ISIS, al-Qaeda, al-Mourabitoun, and other violent Islamist groups operate throughout the Sahel region of northwest Africa, which includes Mauritania, according to many credible sources about international terrorism.
Face-to-face interviews with Mauritanians and all other special interest aliens can be the difference between deporting a dangerous terrorist or letting one into the country. Have those happened with those 18,260 Mauritanians admitted to the U.S. in just three years? Will they?
Abdallahi is dead. But his case presents a rare opportunity for the traditional bastions of government accountability to get interested and get to work with this last question in mind: Is a Jewish Chicagoan the first American to be shot by a border-crossing jihadi, or the last?
Quick Hit:
American truckers say they’re finally earning more per mile as President Donald Trump’s enforcement push clears illegal drivers off U.S. highways. Truckers have reported 50% pay increases on some routes following a surge of ICE activity and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s crackdown on safety and work permit violations.
Key Details:
- A trucker on X said his usual Chicago-to-Fargo run jumped from $1,200 to $1,800, crediting the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement for thinning out illegal competitors.
- ICE and federal transportation officials have detained or removed illegal drivers in multiple states, with reports of Serbian and Indian drivers losing their commercial licenses after failing to prove legal entry into the U.S.
- FreightWaves founder Craig Fuller noted spot rates have risen about 2% despite weak demand, as “bottom feeders” who undercut prices are being “squeezed out of the market.”
Diving Deeper:
As President Trump’s immigration enforcement intensifies, American truckers are seeing something rare in a sluggish cargo economy: rising wages. Across online freight boards and social media, truckers are crediting the administration’s “Compliance Crunch” — a combination of ICE raids and new safety regulations — for clearing out illegal drivers who had been depressing pay rates for years.
One trucker wrote on X that his typical Chicago-to-Fargo route, which paid $1,200 before the election, now brings in $1,800. “Needless to say, I took him up on the offer,” he posted. “Lord do I hope this hangs around a little bit.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been enforcing long-ignored safety and documentation rules, targeting companies that hired drivers without valid immigration status or complete customs paperwork. “We have Americans who’ve been in trucking for 50 years through family businesses,” Duffy told Fox News on October 8. “They can’t do business anymore because you have these illegals coming in, living out of their trucks… they can’t speak the language, and they come in under price — way under price.”
According to reports from The Serbian Times, at least fifteen Serbian drivers have been detained in recent days, and agents have begun seizing commercial driver’s licenses from migrants lacking proof of legal entry. Many of these drivers, primarily from Eastern Europe and South Asia, were able to operate under the Biden administration with minimal oversight — often undercutting legitimate American drivers by accepting lower pay.
Craig Fuller of FreightWaves observed that even though freight volumes remain “anemic,” per-mile spot rates rose roughly 2% as noncompliant firms exit the market. “We are seeing the bottom feeders get squeezed out,” he wrote, adding that most contract carriers haven’t yet felt the wage impact but likely will as enforcement spreads.
Industry experts say nearly one-third of the nation’s freight has been hauled by non-citizen drivers, which trucking analyst Bill Skinner called “not just a safety issue — it’s a national security risk.”
While some corporate logistics networks such as Amazon and Walmart may eventually argue that higher trucking wages could drive up costs, analysts note that the increases are modest and likely offset by fewer accidents, delays, and fraud cases tied to unlicensed or illegal operators.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem rides an ATV along the U.S.-Mexico border wall in El Paso, Texas, on April 28, 2025. Photo: Tia Dufour / U.S. Department of Homeland Security
From The Center Square
By
New contracts to add 230 miles of barriers, nearly 400 miles of technology
Roughly $4.5 billion in contracts have been awarded to expand border wall construction, including adding advanced technological surveillance along the southwest border.
Ten new construction contracts have been awarded through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to add hundreds of miles of Smart Wall in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
“For years, Washington talked about border security but failed to deliver. This President changed that,” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said. “The Smart Wall means more miles of barriers, more technology, and more capability for our agents on the ground. This is how you take control of the border.”
Scott has championed advancing a Smart Wall border security system for years. A border security system is far more than a wall, he has told The Center Square, it’s an ecosystem.
The system encompasses steel and waterborne barriers, patrol roads, lights, cameras, advanced detection technology, including towers and aerostats, to provide Border Patrol agents with a range of tools to detect and interdict illegal activity.
CBP has published an interactive map to educate the public about the Smart Wall system. The map highlights areas of the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border where wall construction has been completed, where border wall panels or waterborne barriers are under construction, where contracts have been awarded for proposed projects in the design phase or early construction, and planned construction areas that haven’t yet been awarded contracts.
Prior to Jan. 20, 2025, 702 miles of existing barriers had been constructed of primary wall and 76 miles of secondary wall, according to CBP data.
The new plan includes implementing barrier technology along 532 miles of the border where no barrier exists because of unfavorable terrain or remote location. It also includes deploying 550 miles of technology throughout previously constructed barriers, CBP says. Specific areas are also being built out in regions where contracts were previously canceled by the Biden administration.
In California, $483.5 million in taxpayer funding was awarded to BCCG Joint Venture for the Diego 1 Project to construct nine miles of new Smart Wall and 52 miles of system attributes in the San Diego Sector.
An additional $574 million was awarded to Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. for the El Centro 1 Project to construct eight miles of Smart Wall and install 63 miles of system attributes in the San Diego and El Centro sectors.
In California and Arizona, $199.5 million was awarded to Barnard Spencer Joint Venture for the Yuma 1 Project to construct 60 miles of system attributes in the Yuma Sector.
In Arizona, nearly $607 million was awarded to BCCG for the Tucson 1 Project to construct 23 miles of new secondary border wall and 66 miles of system attributes in the Tucson and Yuma sectors.
In New Mexico, $155.1 million was awarded to BCCG for the El Paso 1 Project to replace seven miles of old dilapidated barrier fencing in the Santa Teresa Area of Responsibility with a new Smart Wall. BCCG will also complete 22 miles of system attributes in the El Paso Sector in New Mexico.
Also in the El Paso Sector in New Mexico, Barnard Spencer Joint Venture was awarded nearly $579 million for the El Paso 2 Project to construct 23 miles of new Smart Wall and 81 miles of system attributes.
In the El Paso Sector in far west Texas, BCCG Joint Venture was awarded $850.4 million for the El Paso 3 Project to construct 42 miles of new primary Smart Wall, six miles of new secondary border wall and 46 miles of system attributes.
In Texas, BCCG Joint Venture was awarded $565 million for the Del Rio 1 Project to construct 22 miles of new primary Smart Wall, replace two miles of old barrier wall, and deploy 40 miles of waterborne barrier system in the Eagle Pass Area of Responsibility in the Del Rio Sector.
BCCG was also awarded $364.3 million for the Del Rio 2 Project to construct 10 miles of new primary Smart Wall, 23 miles of waterborne barrier system, and install 10 miles of system attributes in Eagle Pass.
BCCG was also awarded $96.1 million for the Rio Grande Valley Waterborne Barrier Project to deploy 17 miles of waterborne barrier in the Rio Grande River, south of Brownsville in Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.
Another $550 million worth of contracts was also awarded to support Smart Wall construction. Additional construction and contracts are expected.
Funding for the projects comes from the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which President Donald Trump signed into law. It also includes some fiscal year 2021 border wall appropriations that were frozen during the Biden administration.
Waivers were also issued by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to expedite construction of nine miles in the San Diego Sector and 30 miles in the El Paso Sector in New Mexico. Both sectors were inundated with record high illegal traffic during the Biden administration.
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