Suspected terrorist, Colombian national Isnardo Gardia-Amado, managed to get into the U.S. in April last year. He was detained in Yuma, Arizona. Through “multiple mistakes”, Border Patrol agents allowed him to be released into the United States.
A bombshell new report has been released by the Department of Homeland Security. An investigation was conducted by DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari. That investigation found a series of mistakes by authorities that contributed to the release. The man was released two days after he was detained in Yuma. An initial terror watch sweep proved to be inconclusive and he was released. In May 2022, DHS identified the man as a 36-year-old Colombian, confirmed his name after Fox News unmasked him but DHS has not commented on what were the accusations he faced.
He was allowed to travel, free as a bird, to the Palm Springs, California airport. But, when he tried to check in for a flight to Tampa on April 21, security screenings confirmed the Colombian was a suspected terrorist. Oops.
Here’s the kicker – immigration officials didn’t receive the go-ahead to arrest him for another two weeks. He was finally detained on May 6. The investigation’s report concludes that CBP ‘missed multiple opportunities’ to work with the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center to identify and detain Garcia-Amado.
In a withering assessment, the official charged with auditing CBP conduct said its agents ‘sent a request to interview the migrant to the wrong email address, obtained information requested by (the FBI) but never shared it, and released the migrant before fully coordinating with (the FBI).’
He warned if these ‘ineffective practices for resolving inconclusive Terrorist Watchlist matches continue, (the CBP) risks releasing individuals into the United States who potentially threaten national security and public safety.’
One border agent interviewed by Cuffari said they had tried their best to share all the information effectively but ‘were busy processing an increased flow of migrants.’
There it is. That was my first thought when I saw this story. With the Biden border crisis and the historically high numbers of illegal migrants flooding the border, it’s a wonder that anything can get done properly. Who knows how many bad guys are roaming the country because they were not properly screened or because they were ‘gotaways’ who were never apprehended by Border Patrol agents? It’s scary to think about. It doesn’t take very many bad guys to work together to do something horrible within the United States.
A separate report by OIG investigators was released in May. It described how Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is understaffed and the agents are suffering from low morale. Who could blame them? They are overwhelmed. Many are pulled off patrolling the border in order to process the migrants, doing administrative work instead of the work they are trained to do.
Since the start of 2023, as many as 1.6M illegal migrants have crossed into the United States from Mexico.
Republican lawmakers are speaking out.
Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said immigration officials had been ‘overwhelmed by Biden’s border crisis.’
‘How many other suspected terrorists are slipping through the cracks under the incompetent Biden administration?’ she asked on Twitter.
Overwhelmed by Biden’s border crisis, Border Patrol mistakenly released an illegal immigrant on the FBI’s terror watch list into the U.S.
How many other suspected terrorists are slipping through the cracks under the incompetent Biden administration?
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) July 6, 2023
Congresswoman Mary Miller, a GOP House member representing Illinois, said that United States Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas ‘must be impeached’ over the blunder.
This is Biden’s America. The Biden border crisis is a national security crisis. We’ve been lucky so far, but for how much longer? The person to blame is the president. He is responsible for keeping the homeland safe and that starts with secure borders. The porous southern border is a dereliction of duty. He should be impeached for that. And, so should DHS Secretary Mayorkas, who is carrying out the orders of Joe Biden and ignoring the disaster at the border. Border Patrol agents don’t respect him and resent that he puts them in the position he does. They are not properly staffed and they don’t have the resources they need to do their jobs. Without borders, there is no country. More and more that looks like the goal of Joe Biden.
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