Man on terrorism watch list released by Border Patrol

SAN ANTONIO An Afghan migrant on the terrorist watch list spent nearly a year in the United States after being apprehended and released by Border Patrol agents last year, U.S. officials told NBC News . The man was arrested in February, then released last month by an immigration judge who was not informed that he posed a threat to national security.

Mohammad Kharwin, 48, was released on bail while awaiting an immigration hearing in Texas, scheduled for 2025, U.S. officials said. There were no restrictions on his movements within the United States

(After this article was published, a DHS spokesperson said Kharwin was arrested Thursday evening. The spokesperson did not provide further details.)

Kharwin was initially apprehended on March 10, 2023, near San Ysidro, California, after illegally crossing the Mexico-United States border.

Border agents suspected he was on the U.S. terrorist watch list when he was apprehended because a piece of information matched a person on the list. But the agents lacked corroborating information, which officials declined to describe, that would confirm Kharwin was the person they suspected, U.S. officials said.

After processing Kharwin and taking his biometric data, Customs and Border Protection released him like any other migrant, without alerting Immigration and Customs Enforcement of possible ties to terrorism, U.S. officials said .

Kharwin was referred to ICE's Alternatives to Detention program, requiring him to check in periodically by phone with an ICE agent. He was able to seek asylum and work authorization and fly to the United States, officials said.

Kharwin is on the national terrorist watch list maintained by the FBI, which includes the names of 1.8 million people considered potential security risks. The database indicates that he is a member of Hezb-e-Islami, or HIG, a political and paramilitary organization that the United States has designated a terrorist organization.

According to the Office of National Intelligence Directors, the HIG is a fiercely anti-Western insurgent group that sought to overthrow the Western-backed Afghan government before its fall in 2021.

HIG was responsible for attacks in Afghanistan that killed at least nine American soldiers and civilians between 2013 and 2015. The group is not considered a major threat in terms of attacks in the United States.

The Biden administration has said it is prioritizing the detention and deportation of migrants considered threats to national security. After this article was published, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said CBP did not knowingly release a person on the terrorist watch list.

At the time of the first meeting, the information contained in the file could not have allowed for a conclusive correspondence,” the spokesperson said. “As soon as there was information suggesting that this individual was a matter of concern , he was taken into custody by ICE. Law enforcement is monitoring the case closely to protect against risks to public safety.

In February, the FBI provided information to ICE indicating that Kharwin had potential ties to terrorists and could pose a national security risk. Shortly thereafter, nearly a year after his release near the border, ICE agents conducted an operation and arrested Kharwin in San Antonio on Feb. 28, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Kharwin was detained by ICE until his court hearing on March 28, when he appeared before an immigration judge in Pearsall, Texas. Immigration judges decide whether migrants can legally remain in the United States, continue to be detained, or be deported.

When ICE prosecutors appeared in court, they did not share with the judge some classified information that would have shown Kharwin's ties to HIG, two U.S. officials said. Prosecutors argued he should be held without bail because he posed a flight risk, but they stopped short of saying he posed a national security risk, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The judge ordered Kharwin released on bail. The Justice Department, which oversees immigration judges and courts, declined to name the judge or respond to a request for official comment.

On March 30, ICE released Kharwin after he posted the $12,000 bond required by the immigration judge, which is higher than most bonds imposed on migrants awaiting court appearances. 'immigration.

The judge placed no restrictions on his travel within the United States, but required him to appear at his next court hearing in a year. ICE did not appeal the judge's decision, sources familiar with the matter said. The case illustrates the challenges U.S. officials face in identifying migrants who may pose a threat to national security. The Kharwin case is the third incident in two years in which Customs and Border Protection has released migrants suspected of having ties to terrorism.

A migrant with ties to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab was arrested this year in Minnesota after living in the United States for nearly a year, the Daily Caller reported.

In that case, the FBI's Terrorist Detection Center decided he should be placed on the watch list after his release, the Daily Caller reported.

A DHS inspector general report released in June examined an April 2022 incident in which a migrant was released because information that would have linked him to the watch list was not properly collected. The report, which does not reveal the migrant's nationality, reveals that CBP sent a request for additional information to the wrong email address.

But in both cases, migrants suspected of links to terrorism were taken into police custody.

Jason Houser, former ICE chief of staff in the Biden administration and senior counterterrorism adviser for CBP in the Obama administration, said it was rare for terrorists to cross the border and even more so unusual for CBP to release someone who proves to be a threat.

We need to make sure we have processes in place to manage them, make sure they're detained and that we know exactly where they are, he said.

Houser said DHS is now better equipped to detect terrorists and the number of them attempting to enter the United States remains very low, even with record numbers of border crossings.

Any terrorist or terrorism-linked individual attempting to enter this country is unacceptable, Houser said. But we have strengthened the ability of federal law enforcement in the U.S. government and the intelligence community to identify these individuals.

Jason Houser, former chief of staff for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said it was rare to see people linked to terrorism crossing the U.S. border, but more resources were needed. NBC News

During his election campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly invoked the terrorist threat at the border to justify his re-election as president.

Terrorists are pouring in, unchecked, from all over the world, Trump wrote on Truth Social this year.

An NBC News analysis found that the percentage of migrants on the terrorist watch list, as a proportion of total CBP encounters across U.S. borders, was slightly lower under the Biden administration than under the Trump. It remained on average at 0.02% under the Biden administration, lower than the 0.05% under Trump.

During fiscal year 2023, which ended in late September and included an increase in border crossings, CBP had 736 encounters with migrants on the U.S. border terrorist watch list, the most number over the past six years. The second highest year was 2019, under the Trump administration, when CBP had 541 migrant encounters on its watch list.

It is unclear whether any migrants on the watch list have been released into the United States under the Trump administration.

The screening systems used to screen migrants at the border under the Biden administration are virtually the same as those used under Trump. When a migrant crosses the border between legal ports of entry, a Border Patrol agent collects their name, date of birth, nationality, biometric information (like fingerprints), and photos. An agent then checks a series of national security databases to see if there is a criminal record or if the migrant is on the terrorist watch list.

Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said in a letter to DHS late last year that the terrorism watch list was too broad. They said having too many people on the list who pose little or no threat to the United States can erode travelers' rights and prove ineffective in stopping those who want to do harm on U.S. soil .

With a bipartisan immigration reform agenda blocked in Congress by pro-Trump Republicans, it is unlikely that additional funding for border security could solve the problems highlighted by recent cases.

At the same time, there are fears that tens of thousands of migrants will evade agents as they cross the southern border.

This is a national security threat, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens recently told CBS News. They are currently exploiting a vulnerability on our border.

This article has been updated to include DHS statements released after publication that Kharwin had been taken into custody and to clarify the procedures CBP followed in his release.

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