Northern Border Terrorist Arrests Increase – Idaho

(The Center Square) – Federal agents are arresting a record number of people on the terrorist watch list at the U.S. northern border, including a Jordanian national with ties to terrorism who was recently expelled from the country after crossing illegally from Canada .

Border Patrol agents in the Blaine Sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested Jordanian national Mohammad Hasan Abdellatif Albana, 41, near Lynden, Washington, a few miles from the Canadian border.

Lynden is located approximately 22 miles from Aldergrove, British Columbia. There are 13 land ports of entry on the U.S.-Canada border in Washington, including the Lynden-Aldergrove Port of Entry. The POE is famous for the 1979 assassination of U.S. Customs Inspector Kenneth Ward, who was shot dead during a vehicle inspection by members of the far-left domestic terrorist group Symbionese Liberation Army.

Albana entered the United States illegally “without being approved, inspected or paroled by a U.S. immigration official,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. Had he not been caught, he would have been considered a “fugitive.” Gotaways is the official CBP term for aliens who enter illegally between ports of entry to intentionally evade capture and avoid being caught.

After his arrest, he was identified as a terrorist watchlist match, processed for deportation and deported to Jordan on Nov. 15 because he posed “a threat to U.S. national security,” ICE said.

According to CBP data last updated on November 20, Albana was among 44 people arrested this fiscal year and identified as a known or suspected terrorist (KST). In comparison, 8 KSTs were arrested on the southwest border during the same period.

As The Center Square first reported, most KSTs are arrested at the U.S.-Canada border.

In total, the largest number of KSTs in U.S. history were arrested under the Biden administration: 1,903.

The majority, 64%, for a total of 1,216, were apprehended at the northern border from Canada between fiscal years 2021 and 2024, according to CBP data.

During the same period, a record 687 KSTs were reported on the southwest border.

CBP publicly reports four KST datasets: apprehensions at land ports of entry and between ports of entry at the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders. Data is reported by fiscal year from October 1 to September 30.

Those identified as KSTs are matched against the Terrorist Screening Dataset, the federal government’s database that contains sensitive information about terrorist identities. The TSDS originated as a consolidated terrorist watchlist to store information about known or suspected terrorists. Over the past decade, it has evolved “to include additional individuals who pose a potential threat to the United States, including known associates of individuals on the watch list,” CBP says.

Over the past four years, most congressional reports and news reports have focused exclusively on KSTs apprehended between ports of entry on the southwest border, ignoring the larger number of arrests and the unknown number of people entering illegally at the northern border.

Since 2017, the most KSTs have been arrested at the northern border every year except 2019, as first reported by The Center Square. The highest number of apprehensions in U.S. history at the northern border was 487 in fiscal year 2023.

Under the Biden administration, 1,209 KSTs were arrested at U.S.-Canada ports of entry and seven between ports of entry. In contrast, 989 KSTs were apprehended on the southwest border; 604 at ports of entry and 385 between ports of entry.

“Record number of people on the terrorist watch list coming across the northern border” belies Canadian officials’ claim that it is the “most secure border in the world,” President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan told The Center Square. “It’s really simple math,” he said, pointing to CBP data. “What they won’t tell you are the unknown escape routes coming across the northern border.”

Unlike the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border, there are no border walls and significantly less technical equipment and agents to patrol the U.S.-Canada border, which is the longest international border in the world at a total of 5,525 miles, The reported Center Square.

Because there are far fewer border guards on the ground, less technical surveillance and a lack of operational control, coupled with threats to national security posed by Canadian policy, among other factors, the number of KSTs arriving illegally from Canada between ports has increased The entry is unknown, border officials told Center Square. Unlike on the southwest border, where agents on the ground can track illegal entries and report escape attempts, there is no comparable option on the northern border, where one agent can be responsible for 500 miles.

“There has always been a national security gap there; it remains a national security vulnerability,” Homan told The Center Square. “There are hundreds of kilometers of open borders that are not policed ​​and that is just a cold fact.”

Homan told The Center Square that the Trump administration will secure the northern and southwestern borders.