What Did DHS Do With The 169 Border Aliens On Terror Watchlist Nabbed In FY 2023?

CBP statistics reveal that Border Patrol agents apprehended 169 aliens on the terrorist watchlist in FY 2023, and an additional 12 in the month of October alone.

Essentially, the use of secret evidence allows the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the U.S. Department of Justice to use as evidence during deportation proceedings information that is not shared with the individual facing deportation.

Though the earlier 1955 provisions continue to be used as federal authorization for the use of secret evidence, one of the byproducts of the passage of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 has been the increased use of secret evidence in proceedings against immigrants.

In any event, the events of September 11th pushed the call for ending classified evidence in removal proceedings to the back burner, though I am unaware of any efforts to introduce so-called secret evidence in any of the cases that were brought in response to those attacks.

In cases where the Department is considering the use of classified information, the alien must be investigated for any violation of law, including but not limited to the civil and criminal provisions of the INA. In many instances, the alien may have committed visa fraud, passport fraud, misrepresentation, perjury, identity fraud, and other civil and criminal offenses, which, if pursued, might eliminate the need to rely on classified evidence.

Perhaps the restrictions in the Ridge memo could be complied with if: the administration were willing to detain aliens whose cases contained derogatory classified information pending that review process; and the number of such aliens was sufficiently limited.

As noted at the outset the number of illegal entrants apprehended by Border Patrol who are on the terrorist watchlist has ballooned under the Biden administration, going from 11 total in the four fiscal years between FY 2017 and FY 2020 to 15 in FY 2021, 98 in FY 2022, and 169 in FY 2023. 

https://cis.org/Arthur/What-Did-DHS-Do-169-Border-Aliens-Terror-Watchlist-Nabbed-FY-2023