Watchdog finds Border Patrol failed to screen possible terror-linked aliens, lacks a uniform policy

The Department of Homeland Security watchdog found that at least one Border Patrol office failed to adequately screen aliens with possible links to terrorism because the agency did not have a consistent policy under the Biden administration. 

A review conducted by Homeland Security’s Inspector General’s Office found that the Border Patrol Office in San Diego did not have a set policy to deal with so-called Special Interest Aliens (SIAs), which are defined by the department as “a non-U.S. person who, based on an analysis of travel patterns, potentially poses a national security risk to the United States or its interests.” 

The finding from the DHS watchdog is only the latest evidence of significant deficiencies in the past administration’s handling of the southern border, especially when it came to proper vetting and tracking of immigrants. 

The inspector general found that despite other Border Patrol offices on the southern border successfully developing screening policies for SIAs, the San Diego office failed to do so. 

No agency-wide policy was in place

The watchdog squarely blamed the wider Customs and Border Protection agency for the failure because it had not promulgated a uniform policy for the screening of such aliens. 

“In July 2023, CBP’s Office of Field Operations (OFO) San Diego Field Office and the U.S. Border Patrol (Border Patrol) Yuma and El Centro sectors had a process to identify and provide additional screening of SIAs, yet San Diego sector did not,” the inspector general wrote. “This inconsistency occurred because CBP did not have an agency-wide policy stating whether to identify aliens from certain countries as SIAs,” the watchdog added. 

Because San Diego lacked a sufficient vetting process, the inspector general found “aliens from countries with links to terrorism entered at least one CBP region that did not provide additional screening.”

You can read the report below: 

No country-specific screening published

The inspector general initiated its review to evaluate Customs and Border Protection’s screening of “Central Asian aliens” who entered the country via “smuggling networks” from June to October 2023, the report says. 

It is unclear what countries the watchdog is referring to because the specific characteristics of the aliens are redacted. However, several countries in Central Asia are home to terrorist activity, including Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. 

In June 2024, ICE agents arrested a group of suspects with alleged ties to the Islamic State across multiple major American cities, including Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles, Just the News previously reported. The individuals reportedly crossed the southern border in 2023 after traveling from Tajikistan, one of the countries in the Central Asian region. 

Tajikistan specifically has become a hub for terrorist recruiting in recent years and Tajik nationals have been named as suspects in the deadly Crocus City Hall attack near Moscow in March 2023. 

The report’s appendix notes that the review was commissioned in July 2023, just a month after the arrests across the country of terror suspects from Tajikistan. 

The inspector general found that the San Diego CBP specifically failed to “conduct and document interviews” of SIAs, a break in procedure from its sister locations near other ports of entry. 

Agents told investigators that there were “too many [redacted] aliens” in custody to interview all of them before release. Additionally, the agents did not “consistently document interviews” per established policy. 

Therefore, as “a result of inconsistent processes for identifying SIAs, CBP screens aliens differently depending on where they enter the United States,” the inspector general said. 

The watchdog recommended that the CBP Office of Intelligence develop a uniform policy for identifying and screening SIAs to prevent similar incidents in the future and warned that smuggling networks can exploit inconsistent policies to their advantage. 

Different points of entry had different screening processes

“As a result of inconsistent processes for identifying SIAs, CBP screens aliens differently depending on where they enter the United States,” the watchdog wrote. “Smuggling networks can use this disparity to bring aliens to areas that receive less screening.”

The Biden administration also came under fire from the Inspector General of Homeland Security for failing to fully vet evacuees from Afghanistan in the wake of President Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. forces from that country, called a "disastrous end" by the Associated Press.

The Inspector General's report said over 79,000 Afghan refugees entered the United States from July 21 through January 2022 and claimed that Customs and Border Protection paroled evacuees into the United States who were "not fully vetted," including dozens with known "derogatory information,” Just the News previously reported. 

Attack planner allowed entry into U.S. in 2024

A more thorough report from the inspector general in June found that at least 55 Afghan refugees accepted under the Biden administration were flagged on the terror watchlist before or during their resettlement in the United States. While many were eventually removed from the watchlist after they were deemed to be no threat, as of July 2024, nine of the individuals remained on the watchlist and were still being tracked by federal law enforcement. 

At least one Afghan refugee plotted an Election Day terrorist attack before his plans were thwarted by the FBI, which arrested him just one month before the 2024 presidential election. Just the News reported that Tawhedi was granted special parole permission to enter the country during Operation Allies Refuge following the withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to a senior U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity. The unsealed criminal complaint confirms that Tawhedi was granted a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV).

Tawhedi pleaded guilty on June 13 of this year in Oklahoma City's federal court to two terrorism-related offenses, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, namely, conspiring and attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), and receiving, attempting to receive, and conspiring to receive firearms and ammunition in furtherance of a federal crime of terrorism.

“By pledging allegiance to ISIS and plotting an attack against innocent Americans on Election Day, this defendant endangered lives and gravely betrayed the nation that gave him refuge,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.