Northern border terrorist-related arrests soar

Federal agents are arresting a record number of individuals on the terrorist watchlist at the northern U.S. border, including a Jordanian national with ties to terrorism who recently was removed from the country after illegally entering from Canada.

Border Patrol agents in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Blaine Sector apprehended Jordanian national Mohammad Hasan Abdellatif Albana, 41, near Lynden, Washington, a few miles from the Canadian border.

Lynden is roughly 22 miles to Aldergrove in British Columbia. There are 13 land ports of entry at the U.S.-Canada border in Washington, including the Lynden-Aldergrove Port of Entry. The POE is famous for the 1979 murder of U.S. Customs inspector Kenneth Ward, who was shot while performing a vehicle inspection by members of far-left domestic terrorist group the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Albana illegally “entered the U.S. without being admitted, inspected or paroled by a U.S. immigration official,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. He would have been considered a “gotaway” if he hadn’t been caught. Gotaways is the official CBP term for foreign nationals who illegally enter between ports of entry to intentionally evade capture and aren’t caught.

Once apprehended, he was identified as a match on the terrorist watchlist, processed for removal, and removed to Jordan on Nov. 15 because he posed “a risk to the national security of the U.S.,” ICE said.

Albana was among 44 individuals who’ve been arrested and identified as a known or suspected terrorist (KST) this fiscal year, according to CBP data last updated Nov. 20. By comparison, 8 KSTs were apprehended at the southwest border over the same time-period.

As The Center Square first reported, the greatest number of KSTs are being apprehended at the US-Canada border.

Overall, the greatest number of KSTs have been apprehend under the Biden administration in U.S. history: 1,903.

The majority, 64%, totaling 1,216, were apprehended at the northern border coming from Canada between fiscal years 2021-2024, according to CBP data.

A record 687 KSTs were reported at the southwest border over the same time period.

CBP publicly reports four KST data sets: apprehensions at land ports of entry and between ports of entry at the U.S.-Canada and US-Mexico borders. Data is reported by fiscal year, from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

Those identified as KSTs are matched to the Terrorist Screening Dataset, the federal government's database that contains sensitive information on terrorist identities. The TSDS originated as a consolidated terrorist watchlist to hold information on known or suspected terrorists. Over the past decade, it evolved “to include additional individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watchlisted individuals,” CBP says.

Over the last four years, most congressional reports and news reports have solely focused on KSTs apprehended between ports of entry at the southwest border, ignoring the greater number apprehended, and unknown number illegally entering, at the northern border.

Since 2017, the greatest number of KSTs have been apprehended every year at the northern border, except in 2019, The Center Square first reported. The greatest number apprehended in U.S. history at the northern border was 487 in fiscal 2023.

Under the Biden administration, 1,209 KSTs were apprehended at US-Canada ports of entry and seven between ports of entry. By contrast, 989 KSTs were apprehended at the southwest border; 604 at ports of entry and 385 between ports of entry.

“The record number of people on the terrorist watchlist coming across the northern border” disproves the “most secure border in the world” claim made by Canadian officials, President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told The Center Square. “It’s really simple math,” he said, pointing to CBP data. “What they won’t tell you are the unknown gotaways coming through the northern border.”

Unlike the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border, there are no border walls and significantly less technological equipment and agents to patrol the U.S.-Canada border, the longest international border in the world totaling 5,525 miles, The Center Square reported.

Because there are far fewer Border Patrol agents in the field, less technological surveillance and a lack of operational control, combined with national security threats posed by Canadian policies, among other factors, the number of KSTs who’ve illegally entered from Canada between ports of entry is unknown, border officials tell The Center Square. Unlike the southwest border, where agents in the field can track illegal entry and report gotaways, no comparable capability exists at the northern border, where one agent may be responsible for 500 miles.

“There’s always been a national security vulnerability there; it remains a national security vulnerability,” Homan told The Center Square. “There are hundreds of miles of open border that is not being patrolled and that's just a stone-cold fact.”

Homan told The Center Square the Trump administration will secure the northern and southwest borders.