Biden’s Catch and Release: Afghan Migrant on Terrorist Watchlist Twice Freed into U.S.; Afghan Migrant On Terror Watchlist Roamed Free in US After Being Released by Border Patrol, Immigration Judge

Biden’s Catch and Release: Afghan Migrant on Terrorist Watchlist Twice Freed into U.S.:

President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) twice released an Afghan migrant into the United States who was later found to be listed on the federal government’s terrorist watchlist, a report from NBC News revealed.

Mohammad Kharwin, a 48-year-old Afghan national and member of the terrorist group Hezb-e-Islami, first crossed the United States-Mexico border on March 10, 2023, near San Ysidro, California.

Border Patrol agents, according to NBC News, had reason to believe Kharwin was on the government’s terrorist watchlist but lacked precise information about his association with Hezb-e-Islami. As a result, Kharwin was released into the U.S. interior as part of Biden’s expansive Catch and Release network.

Kharwin was put into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program which requires migrants to check in with the agency via geo-tracking systems after their release into the U.S. interior.

Like millions of other migrants released by Biden’s DHS, Kharwin was allowed to apply for asylum and a work permit to hold an American job. Officials told NBC News that Kharwin was also permitted to fly in the U.S. on domestic commercial flights.

In February of this year, almost a year after he was released into the U.S. interior, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) noticed ICE agents that Kharwin had ties to terrorism in his native Afghanistan.

On February 28, Kharwin was arrested by ICE agents in San Antonio, Texas. The following month, on March 28, Kharwin went before a federal immigration judge who reportedly was not provided with information about the migrant’s terrorism ties. —>READ MORE HERE

Afghan migrant on terror watchlist roamed free in US after being released by Border Patrol, immigration judge:

A suspected member of a “virulently anti-Western” terrorist group was turned loose by federal authorities after being apprehended crossing the US-Mexico border and, later, freed again when he went before an immigration judge, according to a report.

Customs and Border Protection agents apprehended and released Mohammad Kharwin, 48, after he illegally entered the US near San Ysidro, Calif., in March of 2023, despite suspicions the Afghan national was on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist, according to NBC News.

Kharwin was released under Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “Alternatives to Detention” program – a process that generally requires migrants to submit to GPS tracking or reporting their whereabouts on a smartphone app – after CBP agents couldn’t definitively determine he was on the terror watchlist.

Almost a year later, the FBI notified ICE that Kharwin was a suspected member of the US-designated foreign terror group Hezb-e-Islami, or HIG.

HIG, which operates out of Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan, is described by the National Counterterrorism Center as a “virulently anti-Western insurgent group” responsible for the deaths of several US soldiers and American contractors.

ICE agents arrested Kharwin on Feb. 28 in San Antonio, Texas, according to the outlet, but his time in custody was short-lived.

ICE prosecutors failed to inform the Texas immigration judge handling Kharwin’s detention proceedings about his suspected ties to HIG because the information purportedly linking him to the terror group was classified, US officials told NBC News. —>READ MORE HERE

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