An illegal alien on the terror watchlist is off the streets as of Friday, but he was previously apprehended and released — on two different occasions — into the United States under Biden border policies.
According to NBC News, the Afghan national named Mohammed Karwan belongs to Hezb-e-Islami (HIG), a terrorist group that has carried out attacks killing American service members and citizens.
Karwan first illegally entered the U.S. in California from Mexico in March 2023. Despite border agents suspecting that he was on a terror watchlist, they "lacked corroborating information." Karwan was then released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) without contacting the FBI.
Karwan was able to apply for authorization to work in the U.S. and even to board commercial flights in the U.S. Nearly a year later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) re-apprehended him in San Antonio, Texas.
Subsequently facing a judge, "ICE officials withheld classified information about his terrorism ties" so the judge released him again on $12,000 bond. Karwan posted the money and was back on the loose last month.
Watch:
NBC: The Biden administration RELEASED a member of an Afghan terror organization, whose name was on the terror watch list, into the U.S. after he illegally crossed the border — then tried to cover it up. pic.twitter.com/qg0O9z3OuF
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 12, 2024
Thanks to President Biden's use of "catch and release" to handle the routinely record-setting number of illegal aliens streaming across his open border, this is the kind of thing that happens. Townhall previously reported that the Biden administration has been found to release 95.8 percent of "inadmissible aliens" into the U.S. interior.
Karwan should have been deported immediately upon his first illegal entry to the U.S. last March. But he wasn't. The Biden ICE officials who appeared in court a year later should have disclosed what they knew about his ties to terrorists, but they didn't.
The Biden administration has responded to NBC and other outlets' reporting claiming Karwan was apprehended — for the third time, mind you — "as soon as there was information to suggest this individual was of concern."
But those concerns were reportedly known at the time he first faced authorities after illegally entering the U.S. last March. They were also known at the time he was apprehended again in San Antonio, but kept from the judge.
This alarming story comes just days after FBI Director Christopher Wray warned in congressional testimony about the potential for a "coordinated attack" in the U.S. similar to the attack that took place at a concert hall in Moscow earlier this spring.
For how long can the Biden administration lie about the seriousness of the border crisis or the resulting national security threats? Are Americans just to wait and hope and pray that nothing terrible happens in the homeland — until something does?
As long as the Biden administration continues to allow people on terror watchlists to be released into the U.S., allowed to seek gainful employment, and even to fly around the country, it's a tall order to expect Americans to feel safe. Was 9/11 so long ago that no one in the White House sees the issue with allowing suspected terrorists without real identity documents to board commercial flights without issue?