President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) twice released an Afghan migrant into the United States who was later found to be listed on the federal government’s terrorist watchlist, a report from NBC News revealed.
Mohammad Kharwin, a 48-year-old Afghan national and member of the terrorist group Hezb-e-Islami, first crossed the United States-Mexico border on March 10, 2023, near San Ysidro, California.
Border Patrol agents, according to NBC News, had reason to believe Kharwin was on the government’s terrorist watchlist but lacked precise information about his association with Hezb-e-Islami. As a result, Kharwin was released into the U.S. interior as part of Biden’s expansive Catch and Release network.
Kharwin was put into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program which requires migrants to check in with the agency via geo-tracking systems after their release into the U.S. interior.
Like millions of other migrants released by Biden’s DHS, Kharwin was allowed to apply for asylum and a work permit to hold an American job. Officials told NBC News that Kharwin was also permitted to fly in the U.S. on domestic commercial flights.
In February of this year, almost a year after he was released into the U.S. interior, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) noticed ICE agents that Kharwin had ties to terrorism in his native Afghanistan.
On February 28, Kharwin was arrested by ICE agents in San Antonio, Texas. The following month, on March 28, Kharwin went before a federal immigration judge who reportedly was not provided with information about the migrant’s terrorism ties.
Subsequently, Kharwin was allowed to bond out of ICE custody on March 30 after paying just $12,000. The judge that allowed Kharwin’s release only required the migrant to appear in court the following year but did not place any restrictions on him.
ICE officials, NBC News reports, has not appealed the judge’s decision. Only after the report was published did DHS officials confirm that Kharwin was back in federal custody following his arrest on Thursday.
“At the time of the initial encounter, the information in the record could not have provided a conclusive match,” a DHS official told NBC News. “As soon as there was information to suggest that this individual was of concern, he was taken into custody by ICE. Law enforcement has been tracking the matter closely to protect against public safety risks.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
