ACLJ Files FOIA To Find Out Why Border Patrol Press Release Announcing Arrests of Known Terrorists at Our Southern Border Was Deleted and Why the Humanitarian Nightmare for Children Is Being Ignored

By 

Jordan Sekulow

|
April 13, 2021

6 min read

Immigration

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Despite its refusal to call the situation at our southern border with Mexico a crisis, which it clearly is, we may have just caught the Biden Administration in a dangerous cover-up.

Two known terrorists were apprehended by our brave Border Patrol agents trying to cross into the U.S. from Mexico, but the press release about it has mysteriously vanished. The ACLJ just took action to expose this latest Biden Border subterfuge.

As reported:

U.S. border agents in recent months arrested two Yemeni men on a terror watchlist in separate incidents as they crossed the border with Mexico illegally, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on Monday.

The men, arrested in January and March near a port of entry in California, were on a U.S. government watchlist for terrorism suspects and a “no-fly” list, CBP said in a press release.

Just this week, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announced the capture of the two men, with a representative stating:

"Part of the Border Patrol’s mission states we will protect the country from terrorists," said Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino. "Today, like every other day, our agents did that. These apprehensions at our border illustrates the importance of our mission and how we can never stop being vigilant in our everyday mission to protect this great country."

These arrests are happening despite some representatives on the Left downplaying the threat of terror from the border, and in some cases flat out gaslighting the work of CBP officers.

Now, suddenly, the CBP press release has been deleted from the official website.

According to one report:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will not answer why a press release outlining the arrest of two Yemeni illegal aliens who appeared on both the FBI’s Terrorism Watch List and No-Fly List was removed from its website on Tuesday . . . The announcement detailing both incidents, including the discovery of a cellular phone sim card in one of the migrant’s shoes, however, was quietly exchanged, without explanation, with a link to a page denying access to members of the public on Tuesday. Searches for the original release on the CBP website also did not yield any recent results.

From our own research, via archive.org, we have obtained the original press release that was posted sometime before 5 p.m. on Monday April 5, 2021, and removed sometime after 2:39 a.m. and before 3:50 a.m. on April 6th.

Americans deserve to know that potentially dangerous individuals were captured sneaking into our country. Why would this news be taken down? Who would have the power to force CBP to remove the press release?

The ACLJ just filed an urgent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to get to the bottom of those questions, and more.  Our FOIA demands all “[r]ecords about CBP removing a press release about the arrest of two illegal aliens on the FBI's Terrorism Watch List and No-Fly List.”

The question is, did the Biden Administration pressure CBP officials to remove the press release as part of some unspoken gag order regarding the severity of the crisis at the border, which it refuses to acknowledge exists?

After all, President Biden studied at the knee of President Barack Obama, whose Administration was one of the most corrupt and deceitful in recent history. We’re currently fighting in court and have exposed the Obama-Biden Administration’s “purposeful editing” of a press briefing video about the Iran nuclear negotiations. We filed a FOIA in that case to find out who was involved in the deceptive editing, who knew it happened, and who ordered it.

We now know that Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has conducted discussions with his staff about finishing and filling in the “gaps” in the border wall, despite President Biden’s staunch statement that “there will not be another foot of wall constructed” under his Administration. Can we trust anything President Biden says, particularly in regards to border security?

Our FOIA also specifically addresses the Biden Administration’s refusal to acknowledge the humanitarian crisis at the border:

Any and all records, communications or briefings sent from, prepared by, sent to, received by, reviewed by, or in any way communicated to or by, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, his aides, staff, representative or agents, or acting predecessor, or any CBP, ICE, or USCIS official, referencing or regarding in any way the subject matter of the Biden Administration's instruction, insistence or preference, that the present migrant surge at the southern border is a "challenge" and not a "crisis," or otherwise bow to identify or describe the border situation described in the Background section above.

This humanitarian crisis is impacting children the worst. We have detailed how the Biden Administration’s willful refusal to address the crisis at the border has created an absolute nightmare for children. As such, we additionally are requesting:

Any and all records, communications or briefings sent from, prepared by, sent to, received by, reviewed by, or in any way communicated to or by, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, his aides, staff, representative or agents, or acting predecessor, or any CBP, ICE, or USCIS official, referencing or regarding in any way the subject matter of:

  1. what actions are being taken to protect unaccompanied minors and women from trafficking and/or exploitation;
  2. what actions are being taken to stem and discourage the flow of migrants and unaccompanied minors;
  3. what actions are being taken to protect Americans from crime, terror, drugs, trafficking or border crossers who are on the terror watch list; and,
  4. records that show the actual numbers of migrants in custody, the actual number of unaccompanied minors, the number of migrants released without a court date, the migrants with a criminal record, the originating country of the migrants and the number apprehended on the terror watch list.

The Biden Administration’s efforts to obscure the truth not only puts the safety of Americans in jeopardy, but also the lives of innocent women and children being preyed upon by traffickers, simply because it doesn’t want to acquiesce to something President Trump warned of for years.

Stand with us. Demand transparency from the Biden Administration and for it to protect our national security.