On Monday night, Fox News' Bill Melugin and Adam Sabes revealed that Border Patrol on April 18 released Isnardo Garcia-Amado, a Colombian citizen, into the United States, near Yuma, Arizona, who it turns out is a suspected terrorist. Weeks went by before Garcia-Amado was back in custody, though.
While it was discovered on April 21 that he was on the terror-watch list, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) didn't have authorization to arrest him until May 4. He was ultimately arrested in Pinellas County, Florida, on May 6, over 2,000 miles away from where he was initially released. On May 9, he was released from the Pinellas County jail and transferred to ICE custody.
The Fox News report also noted that Garcia-Amado was "given a GPS monitoring device as an alternative to detention, according to a memo from a federal source obtained by Fox News."
Despite the weeks in between, at which point the suspected terrorist was able to travel thousands of miles and several states away, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Garcia-Amado was "promptly detained" in a statement for Fox News:
"In this instance, after receiving additional law enforcement information, ICE, in coordination with federal and local law enforcement, promptly detained this individual, who was already under supervision via a Global Positioning System (GPS) monitoring device," the spokesperson said. "Noncitizens encountered in the United States without authorization undergo multi-layered screening and vetting. Our immigration enforcement priorities are clear: DHS is focused on those who pose a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security. When we receive additional derogatory information from our law enforcement partners, DHS and our federal partners take swift action to apprehend those individuals."
The spokesperson added that Garcia-Amado is in ICE custody pending the disposition of his immigration case.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was not having it, though, and is demanding answers:
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told Fox News that he is demanding an explanation of why a suspected terrorist was allowed to live in the United States for weeks.
"The State of Florida has consistently addressed the Biden Administration for information on illegal alien resettlement in Florida, which the federal government has declined to provide," DeSantis said. "We demand to know why DHS released a suspected terrorist into the United States and allowed him to live freely in Florida for weeks. How many more known or suspected terrorists has the Biden administration allowed into our country?"
This news comes on the day that the Biden Administration had set Title 42 to end, though as Julio covered at the time, a judge last Friday put a halt to that.
As Spencer covered earlier on Monday, referring to tweets from Julio's reporting on location at the border, many migrants are unaware that Title 42 was actually still in place. Despite even fellow Democrats expressing outrage at Biden's plan to end Title 42, and bipartisan efforts to keep it in place, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the Biden administration will appeal the judge's decision.
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