TIJUANA – A person who was included in the FBI terrorist watch list was detained on May 10 after he crossed, among a group of migrants, across the northern border, into the United States from the Mexican city of Tijuana, Baja California.
Regarding this fact, the governor of Baja California, Marina del Pilar Ávila, told local media on Tuesday that the US authority confirmed the arrest, however, she assured that neither the FBI nor the Mexican immigration authorities “had informed her of details about the person and their entry into Mexican territory.
“The National Institute of Migration (INM) is the one who should have the record of that Afghan person in the event that during his stay in Mexican territory he used airports or bus stations to travel to this border,” said the state president.
For his part, the director of Attention to Migrants in Tijuana, Enrique Lucero, assured that it is not the first time that people “considered terrorists cross illegally from Tijuana to the United States, but that the North American authority does not share that information for security reasons. ”.
The arrest could be politicized
Activist Albert Rivera Colón, director of the Ágape Misión Mundial shelter, has no doubt that the situation “is going to become politicized,” which would help the United States government justify increased security on the border.
Although he also stressed that this situation shows the lack of cooperation, intelligence and information that exists between Mexico and the United States, which has allowed the transit of this type of people across the border.
He also pointed out that there is no cooperation between nations, which has triggered the proliferation of “polleros” (people traffickers) in the region.
“We have looked at all this over the years, but the question now is that there is also a large market for ‘polleros’ and the intelligence against them is very weak or is not working,” he said.
This Tuesday, Jim Desmond, supervisor of the fifth district of San Diego County, confirmed the report through a statement to the media, in which he mentioned that this person of Afghan nationality crossed the border with a group of migrants and upon being seized it was found that He was on the “terrorism watch list.”
He said this arrest should serve as a stark reminder to President Joe Biden and the federal government “of the critical need to maintain a strong border.”
The United States authorities have not issued further information about this person, who could have taken advantage of the camp that was located between the border walls, prior to the completion of Title 42 last Thursday after the end of the health emergency, which It allowed the immediate expulsion of undocumented migrants under the pretext of covid-19, but it established other restrictions on asylum applications at the border and began to deport them through another regulation known as Title 8.
Unlike Title 42, Title 8 does allow migrants to request asylum upon arrival at the border, but they have to meet several requirements, including having applied in the countries through which they have passed or else they could be deported quickly.