{"id":2272605,"date":"2024-06-20T13:51:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T17:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/after-suspected-tajik-terrorist-arrests-little-known-biden-border-entry-program-demands-hard-focus\/"},"modified":"2024-06-20T14:03:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T18:03:31","slug":"after-suspected-tajik-terrorist-arrests-little-known-biden-border-entry-program-demands-hard-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/after-suspected-tajik-terrorist-arrests-little-known-biden-border-entry-program-demands-hard-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"Following Arrests of Suspected Tajik Terrorists, Scrutiny Increases on Obscure Biden Border Entry Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fafter-suspected-tajik-terrorist-arrests-little-known-biden-border-entry-program-demands-hard-focus%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2272605&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A multi-state\u200d FBI counterterrorism operation \u2064recently arrested eight Tajikistani nationals across three U.S. cities. These individuals, \u2062who had entered \u200dthe U.S.\u2063 over the Southwest Border, were allegedly plotting \u2062a bombing. This development has incited considerable alarm regarding security\u2063 failures \u2064under the current administration, prompting the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee to demand detailed disclosures from the Biden administration.<\/p>\n<p>One significant revelation involved the \u200cDepartment of Homeland Security (DHS) allegedly vetting and approving at least one of these suspects \u2062through\u200d the &#8220;CBP One&#8221; phone app,\u200d a humanitarian parole scheme intended to manage border \u200dcongestion by allowing scheduled and legal entry through U.S.-Mexico land ports.\u200b This\u2064 app has enabled the entry of over \u2064500,000 foreign nationals from 100 countries, purportedly after thorough security \u2062checks. <\/p>\n<p>However,\u2064 this incident raises \u2063substantial concerns about the effectiveness of these security measures, especially since the program allowed entries from several other countries known for terrorism concerns. Historically, these individuals, labeled as Special Interest Aliens (SIAs), undergo rigorous checks due to potential terrorism links. Despite these measures, failures in the vetting process are \u2062evident, \u2062considering the\u2064 approval of significant numbers of \u200dindividuals from regions like Tajikistan\u2064 and other Central Asian countries where terrorist\u2062 groups are active.<\/p>\n<p>The situation poses broader national security questions about the DHS&#8217;s capability to handle entries through special humanitarian parole programs and the overall efficacy\u2063 of U.S. homeland security\u2064 protocols in screening \u2062potential threats among migrants.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A multi-state FBI counterterrorism wiretap sting has rolled up eight <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/8-suspected-isis-linked-terrorists-arrested-in-3-u-s-cities-after-illegally-crossing-border\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tajikistani nationals<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  in three cities who had entered over the U.S. Southwest Border and were plotting some sort of bombing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On its own, what little is known about this terrible new consequence of President Joe Biden\u2019s ongoing historic mass migration border crisis \u2013 a coordinated, large-cell infiltration attack on the homeland \u2013 ranked as startling enough to draw <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/06\/17\/us-news\/house-committee-demands-answer-on-eight-tajik-border-crossers-arrested-for-terror-plot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">congressional demands<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  for much more basic information than the administration will currently release.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cUnfortunately, the unacceptable security failures that have allowed individuals with terrorist ties to enter the United States through the Southwest Border have become an alarming pattern under the administration,\u201d states a recent U.S. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/homeland.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/2024-06-18-Green-et-all-to-Mayorkas-DHS-and-Wray-FBI-re-Eight-Individuals-on-TSDS.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">House Homeland Security Committee letter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  demanding the Biden administration disclose how it failed here. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not yet demanded, however, is attention to a recent revelation about the Tajik Eight case that should propel what is happening at the border to an even higher and broader level of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blackburn-introduces-amendments-to-counter-china-and-iran\/\" title=\"Blackburn Introduces Amendments to Counter China and Iran\">national security concern<\/a>. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/8-suspected-terrorists-possible-isis-ties-arrested-new-york-l-philadel-rcna156635\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NBC News has reported <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), of all agencies, actually vetted and pre-approved the entry of at least one of the busted Tajikistanis on the administration\u2019s \u201cCBP One\u201d phone app \u2014 a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2023\/01\/05\/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-border-enforcement-actions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">humanitarian parole scheme.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The CBP One phone app-based entry program has allowed more than 500,000 foreign nationals from 100 different countries who intended to illegally cross the border to instead schedule a DHS-approved \u201clegal\u201d escort through eight U.S.-Mexico land ports, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cis.org\/Report\/New-Records-Unveil-Surprising-Scope-Secretive-CBP-One-Entry-Scheme\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">according to information exclusively obtained and reported<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  by the Center for Immigration Studies through Freedom of Information Act litigation over the past year.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_753491\" style=\"width: 892px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-753491\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">JACUMBA HOT SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA \u2013 DECEMBER 01: Asylum seeking migrants from Tajikistan (C) walk toward a makeshift camp to await processing by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing into the United States. (Photo by Mario Tama\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Biden administration began piloting the program in May 2021 but dramatically <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/news\/2023\/01\/12\/dhs-scheduling-system-safe-orderly-and-humane-border-processing-goes-live-cbp-onetm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">expanded<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  it in January 2023, it said, as a means to clear politically damaging illegal entry border congestion. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Almost all 500,000, we are assured, were supposedly well vetted for security, then granted quick release into the United States, sight unseen, on two-year, renewable permits that also come with work authorization eligibility. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the NBC revelation that one or more of the arrested Tajiks used the CBP One land ports entry scheme warrants new scrutiny about that land port pipeline into the country. It poses a unique national security risk, quite separate from traditional illegal border crossings, especially the vetting that is supposedly done byDHS before passage is granted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this case, the vetting obviously didn\u2019t work.. But for how many others did the vetting system not work? The odds do not look promising.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It turns out that DHS personnel have approved not one or two problematic Tajiks of malintent for passage, but hundreds from that Muslim-majority country of U.S. terrorism concern over the past couple of years \u2013 and literally thousands from some two dozen other nations of terrorism concern, according to an analysis of the center\u2019s FOIA lawsuit data on this program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">From its May 2021 inception through at least December 2023, DHS approved 888 Tajiks for land port passage and release into the country on the two-year humanitarian parole releases, no doubt many more during the first half of 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And they are the least of a rich diversity of foreign nationals from two dozen nations of terrorism concern that the administration has wittingly allowed through the pipeline.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Thousands More Approved For Entry<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The historical context as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-biden-admin-released-a-suspected-terrorist-into-the-united-states-after-he-illegally-crossed-the-border\/\" title=\"The Biden Admin Released A Suspected Terrorist Into The United States After He Illegally Crossed The Border\">homeland security matter<\/a> for these entries is important to know. To reduce the risk of terrorist border infiltration a few years after 9\/11, the U.S. homeland security enterprise began tagging those arriving from some 35-40 nations where Islamic terrorist groups operate as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/potential-terrorist-from-saudi-arabia-found-crossing-border-into-arizona-say-feds\/\" title=\"\u2018Potential Terrorist\u2019 from Saudi Arabia Found Crossing Border into Arizona, Say Feds\">special interest aliens<\/a>,\u201d or SIAs, which flagged them for detention and additional security vetting. The Biden administration now uses the term \u201cspecial interest migrants\u201d internally.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">SIAs are not regarded as terrorists but, because they arrive from nations where avowed anti-U.S. terrorist groups are prevalent, homeland security protocols dating back to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cis.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2018-08\/Aguilar_memo.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a 2004 CBP Memorandum<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  required extra security procedures for those coming from the designated list of countries. Tajikistan has been on that list from the beginning.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_753481\" style=\"width: 374px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-753481\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Customs and Border Protection. November 1, 2004.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to the 888 Tajiks allowed in through the CBP One app program, DHS has authorized thousands more from 24 special interest countries to enter, including from Afghanistan (653), and smatterings from Iran (27), Lebanon (10), Syria (7), Iraq (4), Egypt (6), and Jordan (5). But the largest numbers of SIAs let in are coming from other Muslim-majority former Soviet republics in Central Asia neighboring Tajikistan, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">such as Kyrgyzstan (4,224 through December), Uzbekistan (2,071), and Kazakhstan (585).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The terrorism section of the CIA\u2019s \u201cWorld Factbook\u201d notes that U.S.-designated foreign terrorist groups have long operated in the dangerous neighborhood that all three of the most numerous of the SIAs hail from: the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Afghanistan is in the same tough neighborhood.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_753471\" style=\"width: 522px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-753471\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kyrgyz women in a Matamoros, Mexico hotel waiting for DHS to approve their CBP One phone app applications for escorted entry into Brownsville, Texas. May 2023. photo by Todd Bensman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Among the groups operating in those three countries are the Islamic Jihad Union, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K). But there are many other extremist groups operating in the region too, such as the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan and various ISIS-affiliated groups the government has suppressed, according to the U.S. State Department\u2019s 2021 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/reports\/country-reports-on-terrorism-2021\/tajikistan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Country Report on Terrorism for Tajikistan<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and who might want to flee to the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The same report notes that terrorist group members move throughout the mostly unguarded borders of these countries, with Tajikistan asserting that \u201cthousands of militants\u201d come and go from neighboring Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As one indication of public sentiment toward Islamic extremist ideology in the Kyrgyz Republic, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.counterextremism.com\/countries\/kyrgyz-republic-extremism-terrorism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">an estimated 850 of its citizens<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  reportedly joined ISIS between 2013 and 2015, and regional scholars insist the real number is higher, according to George Washington University\u2019s Counter Extremism Project.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Uzbekistan also has figured prominently in global counterterrorism efforts, in part because the internationally designated terrorist organization known as the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.counterextremism.com\/threat\/islamic-movement-uzbekistan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  has had regional and global reach and regularly conducts attacks. Extremists from Uzbekistan have been implicated in U.S. attacks and plots too. Hundreds of Uzbeks also fought for ISIS and many have returned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At issue with the entry of one or more of the Tajik Eight, along with the thousands of other government-authorized entries of SIAs, is whether the Biden administration\u2019s DHS is conducting effective enhanced security screening.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Failing Security Screening <\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DHS Secretary Alejandra Mayorkas has repeatedly assured the American public that security vetting for this program is its highlight. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DHS <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/news\/2023\/01\/05\/dhs-continues-prepare-end-title-42-announces-new-border-enforcement-measures-and\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">policy documents<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  say all approved CBP One applicants pass \u201crigorous biometric and biographic national security and public safety screening and vetting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_720999\" style=\"width: 874px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-720999\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">JOHAN ORDONEZ\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CBP agents and U.S. processors, however, mainly run this information through criminal and domestic national security databases looking for matches to U.S. criminal records, warrants, and terrorism watch lists, those who do this work say. A DHS source with direct knowledge of government vetting processes for the CBP One land port parole program, who was not authorized to speak or be identified, told me last fall that all of the SIAs going through the CBP One appointment and parole at the land ports are run through more databases than non-SIA applicants \u2014 these ones containing classified intelligence information \u2014 as a means to detect terrorism problems.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But this vetting process is deeply flawed, experts say, because of a presumption that only fractional few real terrorists ever make intelligence databases. Database checks can\u2019t detect information that is not in them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe only thing we can query is information that we have,\u201d former FBI Director James Comey once said of vetting foreign national refugees. \u201cSo, if we have no information on someone, they\u2019ve never crossed our radar screen, they\u2019ve never been a ripple in the pond, there will be no record of them there and so it will be challenging.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Neither can U.S. intelligence agencies very well check for derogatory information with governments that are diplomatically hostile to the United States and would never cooperate, such as Iran, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Pertinent Questions<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThat\u2019s a really hard target to analyze, and to just shoot from the hip and let them in is absolute insanity in my book,\u201d said <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jamesgconway\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">James G. Conway<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a retired FBI counterterrorism agent who after 9\/11 worked in Mexico trying to detect terrorists within the SIA flows. \u201cHow would you knowingly and wittingly bring people from terrorist countries into the United States with that level of vetting? Some of these terrorism countries don\u2019t even have an electric grid let alone a computer system, and you can\u2019t scrub them on databases that don\u2019t exist. The whole thing is insane to me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWhat\u2019s the motivation? I mean, why would they do that?\u201d Conway added, referencing the Biden administration\u2019s approval of SIAs for the CBP One entry program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s a pertinent question that lawmakers, media pundits, and reporters might start asking before there\u2019s blood in American streets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p><em>Todd Bensman is a two-time <a href=\"https:\/\/www.toddbensman.com\/awards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Press Club award winner<\/a>, graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/debunking-the-argument-for-columbia-journalism-schools-terrorist-propagandist-memorial\/\" title=\"Disproving the Case for Columbia Journalism School's Memorial for Terrorist Propagandists\">23-year veteran newspaper reporter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An FBI counterterrorism operation across multiple states apprehended eight Tajikistani nationals in three cities. They had crossed the U.S. Southwest Border, allegedly planning a bombing. This incident underscores the severe implications of President Joe Biden&#8217;s mass migration border crisis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":635,"featured_media":2272606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/06\/GettyImages-2157517569.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2272605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/06\/GettyImages-2157517569.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/635"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2272605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2272606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2272605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2272605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2272605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}