US can stop border-crossing terrorists with – Obama administration policies?

By Todd Bensman as published June 12, 2024 by The New York Post

Near-misses from the worst mass migration border crisis in American history keep coming at us like machine-gun fire.

This month, FBI counterterrorism agents arrested six Tajikistani nationals on terrorism charges after they illegally crossed the southwest border from Mexico, apparently foiling a terror plot linked to the ISIS-K terror group in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The arrests came soon after a Russian who illegally crossed the border was convicted and sentenced in California on terrorism charges for buying weaponry for an al Qaeda group in Syria, as the FBI said he would have gone kinetic had he not been charged.

In May, a Jordanian national who illegally crossed the border from Mexico staged a vehicle ramming attack on Marine Corps Base Quantico that all involved federal agencies refuse to publicly rule out as a terror incident.

This year, Border Patrol agents overrun by the mass migration crisis have accidentally released at least seven immigrants who were on the FBI’s terrorism watch list when they illegally crossed the southern border, according to multiple reports, sparking frantic manhunts to capture them.

That’s just a fractional few of many disturbing cases.

For years prior to the historic mass migration crisis that President Biden kicked off on his inauguration day in 2021, the US media laughed off the threat of terrorist border infiltration as the stuff of baseless right-wing fear-mongering — such as when then-President Donald Trump said in 2018 that Middle Easterners were moving with US-bound caravans through Central America and Mexico.

Much good company has joined the once-ridiculed Paul Reveres, including FBI Director Christopher Wray and the apparently spooked authors of a surprisingly anxious Foreign Affairs magazine essay published this week.

But while many are sounding border infiltration alarms, few have offered solutions.

Perhaps Republican border hawks should turn to an unexpected ally: Democratic Party stalwart Jeh Johnson, President Barack Obama’s secretary of homeland security.

In 2016, during his final months in office, Johnson became a true believer in the threat posed by “special interest aliens,” or SIAs: border-crossing migrants from 35 to 40 nations where Islamic terrorist groups are active.

After 9/11, one of the most important counterterrorism protocols implemented on the border required agents to detain all SIAs until they could undergo face-to-face interviews to determine if these total strangers harbored potential terror connections or intent.

In June 2016, Johnson was so fearful about SIA border crossers that he sent a memorandum to his top deputies demanding their “immediate attention” to “the increased global movement of SIAs.”

He ordered the formation of a “multi-DHS Component SIA Joint Action Group” that would assess the entire program and create a tightly coordinated international action plan to “counter the threats posed by the smuggling of SIAs.”

“I want to ensure we are bringing the full resources of the Department to bear in a coordinated manner on the issue of SIAs,” he wrote, to build on existing counter-SIA programs.

Johnson’s completely prudent plan to intensify the vetting of SIAs at the border and to take down terrorist smugglers in other countries got lost in the chaos of the transition to Donald Trump’s presidency.

His intended revamp never happened — and the catastrophic Biden-engineered mass migration crisis vaporized whatever was left of it.

While SIA traffic over the border had previously amounted to 3,000 to 4,000 individuals annually, SIA traffic since 2021 has reached an unimaginable 70,000 to 80,000 per year.

Federal intelligence and law enforcement officials could no longer interview even a smidgeon of those SIAs, who are mostly waved into the country with no interviews.

“Due to massive numbers of illegal aliens overwhelming CBP, in-depth face-to-face interviews are nonexistent,” former Chief Border Patrol Agent Rodney Scott testified before the House Judiciary Committee last September on the subject of terrorist border infiltration.

The first fix is, of course, almost too obvious to mention: Reduce the total numbers of illegal aliens pouring over the southwest border.

But the far less obvious fix is this one, regardless of how many are crossing: We must resurrect Johnson’s 2016 initiative to interview SIAs before they are released on asylum, and target their smugglers for prosecution and prison.

As importantly, we must adequately fund and equip this massive effort — no matter how many SIAs arrive.

If Johnson’s 2016 plan was nonpartisan enough for the Obama administration, it should be good enough for the Biden DHS, or a Trump one. And, we can hope, not too late to stop the next terrorism attempt within the United States.

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

Related Topics:#BorderCrossingTerrorists #NewYorkPost #ToddBensman #USIllegalImmigrationTerrorists

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illegal immigration

New program offers illegals $1,000 and flights to self-deport

Published on May 6, 2025

Todayville

MxM News

Quick Hit:

The Trump admin will now cover the cost of flights for illegal immigrants who voluntarily leave the U.S. and provide them with a $1,000 stipend after their departure is confirmed. DHS estimates the move will save taxpayers 70% compared to traditional arrest and deportation efforts.

Key Details:

According to Fox News’s Bill Melugin, DHS will announce a new policy that funds commercial airfare for illegal aliens who register to self-deport through the CBP Home app and follow through on leaving the country.
Once an individual’s exit is confirmed through the app, they will receive a $1,000 stipend. DHS says this approach reduces the average cost per removal from $17,000 to just $4,500.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem emphasized that this method avoids arrest and detention, calling it the “safest option” for both law enforcement and the migrants involved.

If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest.

DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App.

This is… pic.twitter.com/2f02wLWQi5

— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) May 5, 2025

Diving Deeper:

The Department of Homeland Security under the Trump administration is rolling out a new initiative aimed at encouraging voluntary self-deportation among illegal immigrants by offering financial incentives and logistical assistance. As first reported by Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, the department will now pay for the commercial airfare of those who choose to leave the country voluntarily and will provide a $1,000 stipend once their departure is verified.

A DHS spokesperson told Fox News the program is expected to reduce deportation costs by over 70%, cutting the average expense from more than $17,000 per removal to approximately $4,500. “This will be safer for ICE and preserve their resources,” the department said, highlighting the policy’s benefits for both enforcement and fiscal responsibility.

Illegal immigrants who wish to participate must register via the CBP Home app and notify authorities of their intent to leave. Once they do so, they will be deprioritized for ICE enforcement and maintain the possibility of legally returning to the United States in the future. According to DHS’s official website, participants in the program may be eligible for financial assistance, help with travel documents, and logistical coordination to arrange departure within roughly three weeks of approval.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem praised the program, saying: “If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” she said. “This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens, and is a 70% savings for US taxpayers. Download the CBP Home App TODAY and self-deport.”

Daily Caller

DOJ Releases Dossier Of Deported Maryland Man’s Alleged MS-13 Gang Ties

Published on April 17, 2025

Todayville

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Katelynn Richardson

The Department of Justice (DOJ) released documents Wednesday demonstrating Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s membership in the MS-13 gang.

Abrego Garcia’s police interview, immigration court rulings and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deportable/inadmissible alien record highlighting his membership in the gang, which he has disputed in court, are included in the release.

In a December 2019 decision, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed Abrego Garcia’s challenge to an immigration judge’s factual finding that he is “a verified member of MS-13.”

The board found the immigration judge “appropriately considered allegations of gang affiliation against the respondent in determining that he has not demonstrated that he is not a danger to property or persons.”

Officers found Abrego Garcia loitering in a Home Depot parking lot on March 28, 2019, wearing “a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate denominations,” the initial Prince George’s County Police Department Gang Field Interview Sheet states.

“Wearing the Chicago Bulls hat represents that they are a member in good standing with the MS-13,” the document states. “Officers contacted a past proven and reliable source of information, who advised Kilmar Armando ABREGO-GARCIA is an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique. The confidential source further advised that he is the rank of ‘Chequeo’ with the moniker of ‘Chele.’”

The administration became embroiled in a legal dispute after Abrego Garcia, who entered the country illegally in 2011, was deported in March to El Salvador as a result of an error. In court records, they argued Abrego Garcia could not “relitigate the finding that he is a danger to the community.”

A lower court ordered his return, but the Supreme Court required it to clarify the order and directed the administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) indicated Wednesday that it would appeal the amended order Judge Paula Xinis issued which directed the government to “take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible.”

During a Monday meeting with President Donald Trump, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said he would not “smuggle” a terrorist into the U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also released court filings Wednesday showing Abrego Garcia’s wife requested a domestic violence restraining order against him.