Afghan National on Terror List Nabbed at Border

Bob Hoge reporting for RedState 

Amidst the chaos and misery at Joe Biden’s border, it’s sometimes easy to forget that it’s not just illegal immigrants from Central and South America trying to cross the Rio Grande into the United States, it’s people from all over the world—including from countries where terrorism flourishes. As I reported, 17 people were nabbed at the border in December 2022 whose names matched those on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), bringing the total at the time to 38 for the fall ’22 season alone.

On Sunday, Fox News reporter Bill Melugin reported that an Afghan national on the list tried to cross over in Otay Mesa, California:

According to the FBI, anyone on the list can be “reasonably suspected” of being extremely dangerous:

Before the 9/11 attacks, there were several different terrorism watchlists, making it difficult to share information. The TSC consolidated that into one federal terrorism watchlist. This watchlist has information on people reasonably suspected to be involved in terrorism (or related activities). [Emphasis mine.]

As RedState reported in April, Afghanistan is once again a flourishing locale for terrorists after our hasty and disastrous withdrawal from the country:

Under the Taliban’s rule, terrorist groups like al Qaeda and ISIS-K have rebuilt their forces, acquiring the operational capacity to launch strikes across Europe and the United States in as little as six months from now, the former officials told Congress during a Tuesday hearing on repercussions of the Biden administration’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. As the war-torn country breeds new terrorists at an accelerated rate, there is a growing fear in the U.S. defense community that a major attack in the United States is on the horizon.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) issued a statement on the arrest:

Public health order Title 42, enacted by President Trump during the COVID pandemic, expired on midnight Thursday, and as predicted, thousands of migrants overwhelmed the border. Title 42 allowed authorities to expel illegal migrants and suspend their legal right to ask for asylum in the United States. Over 2.8 million illegals were turned away while it was in effect. Now that the Biden administration has allowed it to expire, migrants and cartels see it as an open invitation to try to get into the country.

On Thursday, just hours before the end of Title 42, a Florida judge slapped a temporary restraining order that prevents the Biden administration from implementing a policy that allows for the release of migrants without court dates. Critics argue that under the administration’s plan, thousands of migrants would be set free in the country with no way to track them. The Biden administration has said that it will fight the ruling in court. They also claim they have no plans to free thousands of migrants—but the obvious question becomes, then why fight the order?

The report of an Afghan national trying to slip through our porous border emphasizes once again how terrible Biden’s policies have been. With his negligence, the president has literally put our country and its citizens in harm’s way.