The Biden administration is seeking to close a loophole in the immigration process that helped a man on a terrorist watch list move freely in the United States for more than a year.
According to NBC News, a memo written by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier this month overturned a 2004 directive that made it more difficult for officials prosecuting immigration cases to share confidential information. .
The change came after an NBC News report in April detailed the story of Mohammad Kharwin, a 48-year-old Afghan immigrant. An immigration judge in Saskatchewan set bail.
Watch list of Afghan terrorists arrested by ICE
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
Harwin, who the FBI’s terrorist watch list shows is a member of the Islamic Party, a group designated by the United States as a terrorist organization, was initially arrested as he crossed the border in 2023 but was released because Border Patrol agents did not have biometric technology. His inclusion on a terrorist watch list.
He lived in the United States for more than a year before being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this year, but was arrested after ICE prosecutors withheld evidence that Calvin was on a terrorist watch list because the information was classified. was released again. Instead, prosecutors sought to argue that the Afghan national was a flight risk, the report states.
Officials told NBC News that Calvin was scheduled to appear in court for an asylum hearing in 2025, but he was rearrested in San Antonio shortly after the NBC News report was published.
President Biden speaks with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on January 8, 2023. (Jim Watson/AFP)
Biden administration refuses to reveal nationalities on terrorist watch list as illegal immigration surges on his watch
The 2004 policy, recently overturned by Mayorkas, allowed the use of confidential information in immigration proceedings “as a last resort,” and prosecutors seeking to bring deportation cases must obtain approval from the secretary of Homeland Security to share such information.
Under the new policy, employees at agencies like ICE or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would only have to seek approval from the heads of their respective agencies to share classified information, and Homeland Security officials told NBC News the administration is considering steps that would allow more employees Obtain security clearance.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. (ice)
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A Department of Homeland Security official told NBC News: “Over the past five years, we have seen transnational criminal organizations become increasingly involved in the movement of people across our hemisphere, most concerningly from the Eastern Hemisphere, in ways that have significantly changed Shift. “We have seen the terrorist threat landscape become more complex over the past few years than it did after 9/11. “
Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
