An illegal immigrant from Lebanon who admitted to being a member of the Hezbollah terror group network is slated to be deported a year after being caught and released into the country under former President Joe Biden.
Basel Bassel Ebbadi, 22, was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas, on March 9, 2024, and was immediately taken into federal custody. According to reports, Ebbadi told investigators he planned to travel to New York to build a bomb. He also stated that his training with the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah focused on “jihad” and “killing people that [were] not Muslim.”
Ebbadi told investigators that he wanted to leave the group, but he didn’t “want to kill people.” He also said, “Once you are in, you cannot get out.”
Ebbadi, however, was isolated and referred by the Tactical Terrorism Response Team after allegedly ” making terroristic threats against personnel.”
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said, “If an individual presents a threat to public security or national safety, then we will deny them admission, hold, remove, or send them to another federal agency to be investigated, prosecuted or further evaluated as necessary.”
After illegally entering the United States, Ebbadi was convicted of entering the country illegally and sentenced to five months in federal prison on April 26, the New York Post reported.
After serving his prison sentence, he was ordered to be deported on January 13th by a judge in immigration. He claimed that his papers were stolen in Costa Rica when he entered the U.S.
According to The Post, under the Biden Administration, border officials released 400 suspected terrorists who crossed illegally into the U.S. through the Southern border. In January 2024, ICE detained a terrorist from the Somali al Shabaab group.
Unidentified suspects entered the U.S. without permission before they were caught by California border officials and released. This person was free for nearly one year before being caught in Minnesota.
The Trump administration, among other measures to reinforce the border, has stopped the policy of catch and release that Biden implemented under his watch. This allowed for millions of illegal immigrants to enter the United States.