Jordanian national on terrorist watch list caught at US-Canadian border

Agents at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Blaine have arrested Mohammad Hasan Abdellatif Albana, 41, a few miles from the Canadian border.

Once caught in Lynden, Washington, Albana was identified as a match on the terrorist watchlist, processed for removal to Jordan on Nov. 15 because he posed “a risk to the national security of the U.S.,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement online.

Albana, a Jordanian national, illegally “entered the U.S. without being admitted, inspected or paroled by a U.S. immigration official,” ICE said. He would have been considered a “gotaway” if he hadn’t been caught. Gotaways is the official CBP term for foreign nationals who illegally enter between ports of entry to evade capture intentionally and aren’t caught.

Lynden is roughly 22 miles from Aldergrove in British Columbia. There are 13 land ports of entry at the U.S.-Canada border in Washington, including the Lynden-Aldergrove Port of Entry.

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Albana was among 44 individuals who’ve been arrested and identified as a known or suspected terrorist (KST) this fiscal year, according to CBP data last updated Nov. 20. By comparison, 8 KSTs were apprehended at the southwest border over the same time period.

As The Center Square first reported, the greatest number of KSTs are being apprehended at the U.S.-Canada border. Overall, the greatest number of KSTs have been apprehended under the Biden administration in U.S. history: 1,903. The majority, 64%, totaling 1,216, were apprehended at the northern border coming from Canada between fiscal years 2021-2024, according to CBP data. A record 687 KSTs were reported at the southwest border over the same time period.

Those identified as KSTs are matched to the Terrorist Screening Dataset, the federal government’s database that contains sensitive information on terrorist identities. The TSDS originated as a consolidated terrorist watchlist to hold information on known or suspected terrorists. Over the past decade, it evolved “to include additional individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watchlisted individuals,” CBP says.

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Since 2017, the greatest number of KSTs have been apprehended every year at the northern border, except in 2019. The greatest number apprehended in U.S. history at the northern border was 487 in fiscal 2023.

Under the Biden administration, 1,209 KSTs were apprehended at U.S.-Canada ports of entry and seven between ports of entry. By contrast, 989 KSTs were apprehended at the southwest border; 604 at ports of entry and 385 between ports of entry.

“The record number of people on the terrorist watchlist coming across the northern border” disproves the “most secure border in the world” claim made by Canadian officials, President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told The Center Square. “It’s really simple math,” he said, pointing to CBP data. “What they won’t tell you are the unknown gotaways coming through the northern border.”

Unlike the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border, there are no border walls and significantly less technological equipment and agents to patrol the U.S.-Canada border, the longest international border in the world totaling 5,525 miles.

Because there are far fewer Border Patrol agents in the field, less technological surveillance and a lack of operational control, combined with national security threats posed by Canadian policies, among other factors, the number of KSTs who’ve illegally entered from Canada between ports of entry is unknown, border officials tell The Center Square. Unlike the southwest border, where agents in the field can track illegal entry and report gotaways, no comparable capability exists at the northern border, where one agent may be responsible for 500 miles.

Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here.