“Man on terror watchlist was released by Border Patrol,” by Julia Ainsley, Didi Martinez and Laura Strickler, NBC News, April 11, 2024:

SAN ANTONIO — An Afghan migrant on a terrorist watchlist spent nearly a year inside the U.S. after he was apprehended and released by Border Patrol agents last year, U.S. officials told NBC News. The man was arrested in February and then released again last month again by an immigration judge who was not told he was a national security threat.

Mohammad Kharwin, 48, was freed on bond as he awaited an immigration hearing in Texas scheduled for 2025, U.S. officials said. There were no restrictions on his movements inside the U.S.

(After this article was published, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Kharwin was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents late Thursday evening. A source familiar with the matter said that, “based on the information currently available, there is no reason to believe this individual entered the country as part of a terrorist mission.”)

Kharwin was initially apprehended on March 10, 2023, near San Ysidro, California, after having crossed the Mexico-U.S. border illegally.

Border agents suspected he was on a U.S. terrorist watchlist when he was apprehended because one piece of information matched a person on the list. But the agents lacked corroborating information, which officials declined to describe, that would confirm Kharwin was the person they suspected, U.S. officials said.

After it processed Kharwin and took his biometric data, Customs and Border Protection released him as it would any other migrant, without alerting Immigration and Customs Enforcement about possible terrorism ties, U.S. officials said.

Kharwin was referred to ICE’s Alternatives to Detention Program, requiring him to check in periodically by phone with an ICE officer. He was able to apply for asylum and work authorization and fly domestically in the U.S., the officials said.

Kharwin is on the national terrorist watchlist maintained by the FBI, which includes the names of 1.8 million people considered potential security risks. The database indicates he is a member of Hezb-e-Islami, or HIG, a political and paramilitary organization that the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization.

According to the national intelligence director’s office, HIG is a “virulently anti-Western insurgent group” that sought to overturn the Western-backed Afghan government before its fall in 2021. HIG was responsible for attacks in Afghanistan that killed at least nine American soldiers and civilians from 2013 to 2015. The group is not seen as a top threat in terms of attacks inside the U.S….

The case illustrates the challenges U.S. officials face in identifying migrants who may pose national security threats. Kharwin’s case is the third incident in two years in which Customs and Border Protection has released migrants with suspected terrorist ties.  A migrant with ties to the Somali terror group al-Shabaab was arrested this year in Minnesota after having lived in the U.S. for nearly a year, the Daily Caller reported….