U.S. border agents have arrested three Palestinian Arab illegals at the southern border on suspicion of terror ties.
One of the men had “salacious photos” on his phone, including one picture of a masked man holding a rifle, federal law enforcement sources said, according to The New York Post.
Federal authorities also caught one illegal immigrant from Turkey who is suspected of ties to terror groups.
“The migrants were among groups of dozens of migrants who turned themselves in to border agents at the San Diego sector,” sources told the Post.
Border Patrol agents told the paper that they don’t have the tools to properly check illegals’ backgrounds. They arrive from all over the world, particularly in the San Diego area.
“I wanted to get into Border Patrol and protect from terrorists. And it’s like, well, I probably let terrorists in the country,” said one border agent on condition of anonymity.
The San Diego area attracts illegals because it has the biggest loopholes. Migrants arriving there are “exempt from restrictions and allowed to access the asylum system,” the Post reported.
Border agents in the San Diego sector were warned that Palestinian terrorist groups might try to infiltrate the United States after the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of southern Israel.
“San Diego Field Office Intelligence Unit assesses that individuals inspired by, or reacting to the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle East via circuitous transit across the Southwest border,” an alert read.
It’s unknown to which terrorist group the Palestinian illegals are affiliated. An investigation is ongoing. The Post reported that the migrants were transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has taken up their cases.
The Post also revealed that ICE agents in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia arrested eight Tajik nationals last month suspected of Islamic State ties. They all had entered the United States through the southern border.
Also, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is on the trail of 50 migrants brought into the United States with the help of an ISIS-tied smuggling ring.
The number of terror suspects caught at the U.S. border has jumped as illegals have poured across the southern border during the Biden administration.
Twenty-six people on the terror watch list were caught between fiscal years 2017 and 2020. That compares to 98 in fiscal year 2022 and 169 in fiscal year 2023.
