Texas DPS Arrests Pakistani Migrant at Border Crossing

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrested a Pakistani migrant who illegally crossed the border near Eagle Pass, Texas, this week. The single adult male is one of several Special Interest Aliens detained this week in Texas under Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star. Other Special Interest Aliens were also arrested in the past two weeks, including one with possible terrorist ties.

DPS spokesman Lieutenant Chris Olivares posted photos on social media showing the arrest of a group of migrants for trespassing on private land near the Texas-Mexico border in Normandy. Among the group was a Pakistani migrant identified as 50-year-old Khan Ikramullah.

The troopers arrested all of the migrants on criminal trespass charges and transported them to the Val Verde Processing Center where they will be booked on the state criminal charges.

Once the migrants are finished with their Texas charges, they will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations officers. The state will notify the FBI about the Special Interest Alien from Pakistan.

Two days earlier, Olivares posted a photo of a South African migrant after the state received an alert from the Terror Screening Center (TSC). DPS identified the man as Umar Farook Ashraf. The alert from TSC identified the man as the possible spouse or child of a known or suspected terrorist.

The South African man with possible ties to terrorism was arrested in the same area as the Pakistani migrant named above. Ashraf and the 14 migrants in his group were arrested under state charges authorized under Operation Lone Star.

Ashraf was wearing a Qatar Airways Football Club jersey at the time of his arrest.

Troopers also arrested a group of Special Interest Aliens from Turkey, Olivares reported. One of the Turkish migrants admitted to paying $12,000 to cross from Mexico into Texas. He said they found a sponsor in New Jersey through a “network.”

Troopers arrested a large group of migrants (124) near Normandy, Olivares posted on September 18. Troopers identified one of these migrants as Masoumeh Fooladlou, an Iranian national. The Iranian woman carried two passports. One from Brazil, the other from Iran.

Record numbers of Special Interest Aliens whose names appear on the Terrorist Watch List have crossed the border illegally between ports of entry during the Biden-Harris administration, House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism Chairman August Pfluger (R-TX) said in a committee report issued last week.

“The most glaring statistic that alarms me the most is the 382 individuals whose names appear on the terrorist watchlist were stopped trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally between ports of entry from FY2021 to FY2024 year to date,” Chairman Pfluger said in his opening remarks for the committee hearing. “This is compared to the 11 individuals apprehended from FY2017 – FY2020.”

“If we know that nearly two million individuals are considered ‘gotaways,’ how many of these individuals also appear on the terror watch list?” the chairman added.