U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials withdrew from their website a press release announcing the arrest of two Yemeni nationals on the terrorism watch list that had illegally crossed the border this year.
Officials deleted the statement because “it was not properly reviewed and contained some outreach information and national security-related policy,” CBP spokesman Justin Long told The Post on Tuesday.
The press release, which is filed online on Wayback Machine, was originally released Monday, but is no longer accessible on the CBP website. When the link is clicked, readers are sent to a page that says “Access Denied” and “You are not authorized to access this page.” It is unclear when the version was removed.
The deleted version indicates that agents from the US border patrol in the CBP El Centro sector in southern California captured two Yemeni men in January and March who were on the FBI’s terrorism watch list. and on the federal no-fly list
The statement included two images of men with black bars in their eyes.
The first man, an unidentified 33-year-old man, was arrested Jan. 29 around 1:10 a.m., about three miles west of Calexico’s port of entry, about two hours later. east of San Diego, according to the archived statement.
When officers searched the man and searched him, they found that he had a SIM card stored under the shoe’s insole and that it was on the FBI’s terrorism watch list and on the No-Fly list. .
CBP said in the filed statement the man was transferred to immigration custody and customs control, which is responsible for deporting people back to their home countries.
The second incident occurred around March 30 around 11:30 p.m., when officers arrested an unidentified 26-year-old man about two miles west of the same port of entry and realized he was in the same federal safety lists, according to the withdrawn statement.
CBP said the man was being held in federal custody “pending removal.”
“Part of the Border Patrol mission claims that we will protect the country from terrorists,” patrol chief officer Gregory K. Bovino boasted in the release since then.
“Today, as every two days, our agents have done it. These apprehensions at our border illustrate the importance of our mission and how we can never fail to keep an eye on our daily mission to protect this great country. “
When he was pressured by The Post to delve deeper into the apparent security issue, a CBP spokesman bet.
“CBP’s policy is not to confirm the state on any investigation, police or national security list,” the spokesman said.
