ALABAMA - A recent report released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revealed that, compared to previous years, the number of encounters along the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders with individuals on the Terrorist Screening Data Set has seen a drop. As of July 2024, the number of encounters with people on the watchlist at the Mexico border dropped to 139, compared to 216 during the same period in 2023. Similarly, 283 individuals were encountered at the U.S.-Canada border, down from 375 in the previous year.
Amongst the cases related to those on terrorist watchlists there is one involving eight Tajikistan nationals who were arrested back in June. The nationals from the Central Asian country allegedly had ties to the Islamic State terror group. According to U.S. officials, coordinated raids in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia disrupted a potential terrorist plot that was still in its early stages and was set to be carried out by them.
According to reports from CBS News, the FBI learned of the group's potential ties to the Islamic State soon after the eight Tajikistan nationals crossed into the United States. As the agency identified early-stage terrorist plotting, it triggered their immediate arrests through a wiretap after the individuals had already been vetted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Four months after their arrest, three of the men have already been returned to their home country and Russia, while four others await their removal by immigration court judges. Only one of the men arrested in June still awaits his legal proceeding, following a medical issue, but U.S. officials speaking on the condition of anonymity indicate that he is likely to face a similar outcome to the other seven suspects.
In the past year, Tajik nationals have engaged in terrorism plots in Russia, Iran and Turkey, with several of them arrested after a deadly attack in Moscow that left at least 133 people dead. That attack has been linked to the Islamic State Khorasan Province, a faction of ISIS that emerged in 2015.
As the migrants reaching the Southwest border become more diverse, U.S. agencies are switching up their cooperation strategies to normalize the direct sharing of classified information with U.S. immigration judges. This is aimed at allowing immigration courts to more regularly incorporate derogatory information into their decisions in an attempt to facilitate the sharing of classified materials.
A senior homeland security official told reporters in a briefing on Oct. 2 that border personnel is now encountering "individuals from all parts of the world, to include conflict zones and other areas where individuals may have links or can support ties to extremist or terrorist organizations that we have long-standing concerns about."
Such was the case of an Uzbek man arrested in Baltimore back in May. According to NBC News, ICE reported that the man had alleged ISIS ties after he had been living inside the U.S. for more than two years.
Although the FBI's national terrorist watchlist contains the names of 1.8 million people considered to be potential security threats, the actual percentage of migrants with terrorist ties crossing the border remains low. An NBC News analysis found that the percentage was slightly lower during the Biden administration (0.02%) than during the Trump administration (0.05%).
In fiscal year 2023, which ended in late September, CBP had 736 encounters with migrants on the terrorist watchlist at U.S. borders, the most in the past six years.
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