The Biden administration is seeking to close a loophole in immigration processing that allowed a man on a terrorist watch list to move freely around the U.S. for more than a year.
A memo written by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier this month repealed a 2004 directive that made it harder for officials prosecuting immigration cases to share classified information. A report from NBC News.
The change came after an NBC News report in April detailed the case of Mohammed Kalwin, 48, an Afghan immigrant who had been on a terrorist watch list but was released on bail by an immigration judge in Texas.
Afghan man on terror watch list arrested by ICE
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
Calwin, a member of Hizb-e-Islami, an organization designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization, was initially arrested while crossing the border in 2023, but was released from custody because Border Patrol agents did not have biometric information linking him to the terrorism watch list, according to an FBI terrorism watch list.
He was able to live in the US for more than a year before being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this year, but was released again after ICE prosecutors suppressed evidence that Calwin was on a terrorism watch list for security reasons. Instead, prosecutors tried to argue that as an Afghan national, he was a flight risk, the report noted.
Authorities told NBC News that Kerwin was scheduled to appear in court for an asylum hearing in 2025, but was arrested again in San Antonio shortly after NBC News published the story.
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 terror watch list as illegal immigration surges under his administration
A 2004 policy recently repealed by Mayorkas allowed for classified information to be used in immigration proceedings “as a last resort,” and required prosecutors seeking to file deportation cases to get approval from the secretary of Homeland Security to share such information.
Under the new policy, officials from agencies like ICE and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will simply need to contact their respective agency heads for approval to share classified information, while a Department of Homeland Security official told NBC News the administration is considering measures to allow more employees to obtain security clearances.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. (ice)
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“Over the past five years, we have seen a significant change in the way international criminal organizations have become increasingly involved in the movement of people in our hemisphere, particularly the Eastern Hemisphere. The terrorist threat landscape has become much more complex in the last few years than it was immediately after 9/11,” a Homeland Security official told NBC News.
Neither DHS nor the White House immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
