DHS watchdog finds ‘multiple mistakes’ that led to migrant on terror watch list being released into US

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Terror arrests at southern border rising at alarming rate

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, addresses the Homeland Security threat posed by the migrant crisis.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General has found "multiple mistakes" that it said led to the release of a migrant whose name appeared on the FBI’s terror watch list – with the report sparking immediate criticism from the agency, which accused it of sensationalizing the case.

The case involved the apprehension of a migrant on April 17, 2022, he was later released by Border Patrol two days later after the FBI’s terrorist screening center determined he was an inconclusive match on the terror watch list, the DHS OIG report outlined.

However, two days later on April 21 in Palm Springs, California, the migrant and his family checked in for a flight to Tampa, Florida, at which point the FBI obtained additional information from TSA and found he was a positive watch list match and informed Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who then contacted the ICE subsidiary office in Tampa. The migrant missed the flight to California, but rebooked a flight to Florida the next day, the report says. He was later picked up by ICE in Florida on May 6.

BORDER PATROL RELEASED SUSPECTED TERRORIST WHO CROSSED INTO US ILLEGALLY, ICE TOOK WEEKS TO REARREST HIM 

A U.S. Border Patrol agent talks with asylum-seekers waiting between the double fence along the U.S.-Mexico border near Tijuana, Mexico, Monday, May 8, 2023, in San Diego. The migrants wait between the fences to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents.  (Denis Poroy)

While the migrant is not named in the report, Fox News reported last year that the migrant was a Colombian citizen and was put on GPS monitoring as an alternative to detention. ICE did not receive authorization to arrest him until May 4, Fox reported in May.

The inspector general report found that Customs and Border Protection did not provide information that the TSC would have been able to use to confirm his presence on the watchlist.

"This occurred because CBP’s ineffective practices and processes for resolving inconclusive matches with the Terrorist Watchlist led to multiple mistakes," the report says.

It specifically highlighted a request to interview the migrant sent to the wrong address, information obtained but not shared by officials, and a premature release of the migrant before there had been fully coordination between agencies.

The report also includes testimony from a Border Patrol agent at the processing center in Yuma, who said that he and his colleagues were trying to respond to emails from CBP’s National Targeting Center (NTC) but were busy processing an increased surge in migrants. The release of the man came in a busy month, where there were more than 235,000 migrant encounters in that month alone. Agents told investigators that Yuma’s center was over capacity, putting pressure on them to quickly process migrants and decrease the time available to them to review each file.

Meanwhile, ICE officials explained that while the agency prioritized the arrest, its Fugitive Operations did not receive the migrant’s file until 8 days after requesting it. Officials said that the delay may have been because the agency’s Yuma office receives about 1,000 alien files once or twice a week that it must sort, box and ship to Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) offices across the country. It is currently piloting using electronic A-files, but that pilot has not yet been expanded.

FBI TERROR WATCHLIST ARRESTS AT SOUTHERN BORDER FOR FY 23 HITS ALL-TIME RECORD 

The IG recommended that DHS implemented processed to better maintain email distribution lists, identify and share best practices for resolving inconclusive terror watch list matches and that ICE have immediate access to GPS data. 

DHS concurred with recommendations made, but criticized the report’s title and framing as misleading for allegedly suggesting that the agency knew he was on the watch list when that was not known and of mischaracterizing the arrest process and timeline. 

A DHS official noted that the individual was placed on GPS monitoring and that he was continuously monitored until he was apprehended by ICE, which followed appropriate procedure after being notified by the FBI that the migrant was a match. 

Immigrants wait to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border from Mexico on December 30, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona.  (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)

"This OIG report sensationalizes and mischaracterizes a complex case, in which CBP and ICE personnel took appropriate steps to ensure there was no threat to the public. Noncitizens encountered by CBP are thoroughly screened and vetted, and any individual determined to pose a threat to national security or public safety is detained," a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

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"The Department of Homeland Security is committed to protecting the American people and safeguarding our borders, and the Department is constantly working to improve information sharing and execute our vital mission," they said.

Some immigration hawks critical of the administration immediately cited the report as proof of what conservatives have dubbed a "dereliction of duty" under the Biden administration.

"This is yet another example of the Biden administration’s refusal to enforce common sense laws and practices to keep our border secure," RJ Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE), told Fox News Digital. "What good is a terror watchlist if we allow them to waltz across our border and even board an airplane? These threats are a detriment to public safety and they’re being ignored to advance an open borders agenda."

Encounters of those on the watchlist, which may also includes family members or associates of a known or suspected terrorist and those who may no longer be associated with a foreign terrorist group, arrested by Border Patrol between ports of entry hit an all-time high at the southern border in FY 23.

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As of the end of May, there have been 125 arrests at the southern border between ports of entry by Border Patrol since the fiscal year began in October. 

That is higher than FY 2022’s 98 encounters, which itself broke a record. In FY 21 there were just 15 arrests and in FY 20 just three.