It's no secret that President Joe Biden's open-border policies have brought danger and disaster to the U.S.-Mexico border, with record numbers of illegal immigrants — including individuals on U.S. terror watch lists — and a staggering number of so-called "got-aways" whose identity and intentions in America remain unknown.
The tragic consequences of Biden's border crisis means that it's entirely unsurprising that an Iranian male managed to make it into the United States — illegally — from Mexico before being apprehended last week by the Texas Department of Public Safety near Del Rio, Texas.
And, as it turns out, the Iranian illegal immigrant captured in a human smuggling bust matched an individual on the FBI's terror watchlist, a fact reported exclusively by Fox News on Wednesday.
EXCLUSIVE: An Iranian illegal immigrant arrested by @TxDPS in a human smuggling bust near Del Rio, TX last week was later flagged as a match on the FBI’s terror watchlist, law enforcement sources tell me. He was being smuggled in the trunk of a car w/ 4 other men. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/GlR1hTOyka
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) February 1, 2023
As Fox News explained:
Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) arrested 29-year-old Alireza Heidari last week after a traffic stop involving a human smuggler at the border in Val Verde County, Texas as part of Operation Lone Star.
Heidari was being smuggled in the vehicle along with four other illegal immigrants. He was located in the trunk. Fox is told that Heidari was handed over to Border Patrol custody and later determined to be a match of the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB).
Fox reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Thursday and multiple times since. Only on Tuesday did DHS refer Fox to the FBI, which declined to comment. The FBI’s website says it does not confirm anyone’s status on the watch list.
National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd noted that it was Texas DPS, not Border Patrol, that ultimately apprehended Heidari.
"If not for the work of Governor Abbott and Texas DPS, Alireza Heidari would be at large on our streets today and looking to do harm to the US and our fellow citizens," Judd said. "Heidari entered the country illegally and evaded apprehension by the Border Patrol. It fell to Texas DPS to do our job because [President] Biden continues to play politics with the safety and security of our children, friends and neighbors. What Biden is doing is dangerous and the capture of Heidari by a non-federal law enforcement agency is the most recent proof."
The capture of an Iranian illegally inside the United States whose identify flagged on a terror watch list is concerning on its face, but even worse given other recent events that include an Iranian plot to assassinate former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Adviser John Bolton. That is, Iranians suspected of being terrorists trying to sneak into the United States should set off every alarm bell within the Biden administration.
So, will President Biden take the border crisis seriously now that an individual — from the country that prides itself on being a state sponsor of terror — who the U.S. lists as someone "reasonably suspected" to be involved in terrorism was able to make it into the country? Especially when an unknown number of other Iranians or individuals from other countries also on terror watch lists could be among the more than 1.2 million "got-aways" who've snuck into the country on the Biden administration's watch?
If Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is any indication, the Biden administration does not care who is entering the country, where they went, or what they may intend to do:
Q: “Do you know where [the 1.1 million ‘gotaways’] are and who they are?”
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 1, 2023
DHS Secretary Mayorkas: *dodges*
Q: “Do you know where they are and who they are?”
Mayorkas: Nah, I have no idea. pic.twitter.com/eu9dtddn9j
UPDATE: Fox News updated its reporting on Wednesday to state that a DHS official told the network that the Iranian illegal immigrant captured in the human smuggling bust was determined not to be a match with the FBI's terror watchlist — a partial contradiction of the FBI's earlier refusal to confirm anyone's status on the watchlist and despite the name and date of birth reportedly being initially flagged as a match.