According to a report from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, 99 non-citizens on the “terrorist watchlist” have been released domestically. Is this true?
US Rep. Claudia Tenney recently claimed that watchlists have been “freed” in the United States. The allegations came as part of her debate over New York laws that grant driver’s licenses to New York laws, regardless of immigration circumstances.
“New York is one of the worst,” a Republican representative told Fox News. “We’ve had almost 99 or 100 people unleashed on the terrorist watchlist. That’s what we know.”
Along the coast of Lake Ontario, which shares its border with Canada, Tenney, which has more than a dozen counties in the parliamentary district, claimed that people on the list could get licenses.
We focus on her claim that 99 or 100 immigrants who appear on the Terror Watchlist have been “liberated.”
What does US CBP data show?
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers meet citizens and non-citizens at borders that include “terrorism-related” records, including those from government terrorist screening data sets. The list includes names of people known or suspected to have a connection to “terrorism,” but critics say the list is very broad and contains 2 million names. I say it. It includes not only the suspicious people, but the people who connected them.
Non-citizens who cross borders at land ports infiltrated in and try to match records of “terrorism” with “most commonly recognized for our country and were immediately deported or deleted,” according to the CBP. They can also be handed over to another government agency for enforcement action.
If CBP officers encounter them after entering the country without review, they would say, “These non-citizens are most commonly detained and handed over to another government agency for subsequent detention and law enforcement measures, or It will be handed over to another government agency.”
Data from fiscal year 2024, which ended September 30, shows that there were 410 encounters with all people who matched “terrorism” records that could include US citizens at Entry Port.
“Encounters” can represent multiple attempts by the same person to cross a border. This represents just a small portion of the 2.9 million enforcement encounters at the border that year. Since 2022, most of these encounters have occurred at the US border. In 2024, 358 of these encounters occurred on the north border and 52 on the southwest border.
The agency will also track encounters between non-citizens’ ports of entry that match “terrorism” records. These were far fewer, only 106 in the year ended September 30th, of which 103 were on the southwest border, and 13 were on the southwest border, from October 1st to January.
We contacted Tenny’s office to get evidence of her claims, but there was no response.
What is the basis for Tenny’s claim?
Tenney’s source could be a report released in August from the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Ohio Representative Jim Jordan. The report cited “information provided” by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). However, no other evidence or details were provided. At least 99 non-citizens who matched the “terrorist watchlist” said they were released to the US from 2021 to 2023.
An additional 34 immigrants from the list were in DHS custody. The report uses language to suggest that immigration authorities knew that non-citizens were on the list at the time of release. The report says the 99 came from a pool of 250 non-citizens who were attempting to cross the southern border and identified as being on the list. CBP statistics show 250 encounters with watchlists at the tropical border between 2021 and 2023. These statistics allow you to have multiple encounters with the same person.
The report focuses on other cases where people on the list were crossed undetected and subsequently arrested. According to NBC News, the possibility of their “terror” bonds was unknown when they crossed the border.
A similar case included a Uzbek man who stayed for two years without detection. Other examples include those migrants who were first unverified by watchlist immigrants.
The report also alleges that an immigration judge, which appeared on the Terrorist Watchlist, granted bonds to 27 migrants who crossed the border between ports of entry from 2021 to 2023. However, the judge may not have known about the list’s immigrant status, according to the report.
The other four on the list have been granted exiles. According to government documents, Venezuelan citizens, who are known to appear in the authorities to appear in the watch list, have been released to the US over concerns about Covid-19 in detention facilities.
CBP mentioned questions regarding the truthfulness of the report to DHS that did not answer our enquiries.
So, what is the truth behind the claim that “terrorist watchlist” people were released in the US?
Recently, immigrants who have a potential “terror” bond have been featured in the news.
There were also at least two reported cases where immigrants should be detained because they were on the “terrorist watchlist” but not. NBC News reported on Afghan immigrants who were released on the watch list in April. He was arrested a year later in Texas hours after the NBC report. The man was initially not detained as the border agent didn’t have enough information to support his location on the list, according to the network.
Daily Callers reported in 2024 about immigrant releases whose names did not match the names on their watchlist. He was arrested almost a year after authorities confirmed their ties with Somali “terrorist” groups.
Counterterrorism experts can trust that there is a state, local or federal “catch and release” program of any type, including known or suspected “terrorists” with “terrorists” known as KSTS. He told Politifact that there was none.
“In contrast, if KST is arrested on the border or elsewhere, they will be charged. [if part of a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization] “We’re a scientist and anti-terrorism,” said Jason M. Brazakis, director of the Center for Terrorism, Extremism and Counter-Terrorism at the Middlebury International Institute in Monterey, California.
Blazakis questioned the accuracy of the House Judiciary Committee report, saying it had no details.
“Terrorist Watchlists” can be broad and include many people who don’t pose any immediate threats, said Aaron Reichlin Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Council on Immigration.
“That doesn’t mean that there are no people on that list that pose a serious threat to the United States,” Reichlin Melnick said. “But the list is too big and complaints about comprehensive dates over 10 years ago.”
It is not a CBP policy to free people known to be on the “terrorist watchlist.” Tenny is right. That there are known cases of people appearing on the list released to the US. These cases primarily involved people whose list status was unknown to immigration authorities upon crossing the border.
The House Judiciary Committee released a report that there were 99 non-citizens who appeared on watchlists released to the United States, suggesting that immigration authorities knew their status at the time. The report cited “information provided” by DHS, but the department has not reviewed the report. Because of this uncertainty, we do not rate this claim in Truth-Ometre.
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