Potential terrorist detained jumping border in Arizona
Border Patrol agents say they nabbed a “potential terrorist” trying to jump the border, adding a national security dimension to the border chaos that’s erupted in southwestern Arizona this month.
Chris T. Clem, the chief patrol agent for the Yuma sector, said the 21-year-old migrant was from Saudi Arabia and “is linked to several Yemeni subjects of interest.”
The chief posted news of the arrest to Twitter.
That region of the border was already reeling from a rise in illegal border activity earlier this month that spurred the mayor of Yuma to declare a state of emergency and the governor to deploy state troopers and national guard.
Local law enforcement said agents were overwhelmed with the numbers and unable to respond to call-outs, leaving illegal immigrants tramping miles from the border into the city’s downtown. One group was photographed walking into a McDonald’s while another group was photographed outside the Border Patrol’s headquarters, waiting for agents to free up and come out to arrest and process them.
Yuma sees an exceptional number of migrants from beyond the traditional sending countries of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Yuma agents in April reported arresting two men from Yemen who snuck across in separate incidents. They were listed on the FBI’s terrorism watch list and a no-fly list.
But the press release announcing the arrests was quickly stricken from the web. A spokesman later said the release “was not properly reviewed and contained certain disclosure and policy information related to national security.”
The prospect of terrorists using the porous southern border to reach the U.S. has been heatedly debated.
Republicans say the threat is real. Biden administration officials downplay it.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, during testimony on Capitol Hill, was pressed for the numbers. He declined to provide them publicly but said he would get them to lawmakers in a secret fashion.
After Monday’s announcement, Rep. John Katko, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, called the Saudi man’s arrest troubling.
He pointed to photos the Border Patrol shared of the man wearing a jacket with an emblem from the Central Oneida County (NY) Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
“As I and many of my colleagues have been saying for months, the impact and relevancy of the Biden border crisis are not limited to communities along the southwest border,” he said. “Migrants are entering the United States illegally in record numbers from a litany of countries. We are undoubtedly experiencing a nationwide crisis.”
Source: Washington Times
