WATCH: Iranian Terrorist Caught At Southern Border

By Ryan Canady | Friday, 03 February 2023 10:25 AM
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WATCH: Iranian Terrorist Caught At Southern Border

Texas law enforcement encountered an Iranian terrorist at the southern border last week.

That individual’s name and date of birth were flagged as a match to the FBI’s terror watchlist. However, a DHS official told Fox News that the individual was ultimately deemed not to be a match in the system after further vetting.

Fox News reports that the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) arrested 29-year-old Alireza Heidari last week after a traffic stop involving a human smuggler at the border in Val Verde County, Texas, as part of Operation Lone Star.

Heidari was smuggled in a vehicle along with four other illegal immigrants across the border. He was located in the trunk of the vehicle. He was then handed over to Border Patrol custody, where he was later determined to be a match for the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB).

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Fox News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Thursday and multiple times since then. Finally, on Tuesday, the DHS referred Fox to the FBI. However, the FBI declined to comment on the case. The FBI’s website states it will not confirm anyone’s status on the terror watchlist.

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However, on Wednesday, there was a reverse when the DHS confirmed that Heidari was verified not to be a match in the FBI’s terror watchlist system.

The FBI’s TSDB has information about those who are “reasonably expected” to have been involved in terrorism or related activities. Fox News reports that 17 people were stopped at the border in December alone and matched up on the terror watchlist. That brings the total number of people stopped at ports of entry in the United States that matched up on the terror watchlist in some way to 38 since October.

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There have been 98 terror watchlist suspects arrested at the border in the fiscal year 2022, up from 15 in the fiscal year 2021 and only 3 in the fiscal year 2020. It is a problem that has been escalating in recent years, which is why so many are concerned about what is happening at the border.

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