By Julia Ainsley -
NBC News
Border Patrol agents detained a Lebanese migrant who claimed to be a member of Hezbollah on his way to New York and was going to try to make a bomb earlier this month at the border near El Paso, Texas, this week confirmed. Monday a Customs and Border Protection official.
The man is now in the custody of US authorities and there is an ongoing investigation into him and his claims, said the official, who requested anonymity.
Migrants walk through barbed wire fences at the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on March 13, 2024.John Moore/Getty Images
The New York Post first reported that Basel Bassel Ebbadi, 22, had been detained trying to cross the border in Texas on March 9, and that he had told Border Patrol agents that he had trained with Hezbollah. .
“I'm going to try to make a bomb,” he said.
In a statement, a CBP spokesperson stated: “If an individual poses a
potential threat to national security
or public safety, we deny admission, detain, expel, or refer to other federal agencies for further review.” , investigate and/or prosecute it, as appropriate.”
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Hezbollah has been designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department.
NBC News reported in September that border agents had encountered a “growing number of individuals” on the FBI's terrorist list who attempted to enter the country across the southern border, according to a threat assessment published by the Department of Homeland Security.
In July 2023 , 160 migrants whose identities matched names in the terrorist detection database
were reported
to have been apprehended by CBP attempting to cross the US-Mexico border during fiscal year 2023, compared to 100 in fiscal year 2022. In total, the United States recorded 2.5 million encounters with migrants attempting to cross the border in fiscal year 2023.
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It was not known if the man arrested on March 9 was included in that list.