South
How many people on the terrorist watchlist are coming into the United States?
Some Republican lawmakers are flagging Hamas’ attack on Israel as an example of why more security is needed at the southern U.S. border. Hamas militants breached a border fence and attacked Israeli villages bordering the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7.
“Potential terrorists are attempting to cross our southern border. In September alone, 18 illegal immigrants on the terror watchlist were caught at the border,” U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., posted Oct. 21 on X, formerly Twitter. “The attack on Israel should serve as a warning as to why we must secure the border.”
The next day, U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., also mentioned the terrorist watchlist on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“We just caught 18 people, just last month, on the FBI terrorist watchlist, coming across our border,” McCarthy said. “More than 160 have done it this year.”
U.S. immigration officials have encountered rising numbers of people on the watchlist. But not everyone on the list is a terrorist, and not everyone encountered is allowed to enter the country.
Terrorism and immigration experts say the threat of attacks in the U.S. and Israel are not comparable.
“People aren’t crossing the border to conduct terrorist attacks or take over parts of the United States,” David Bier, an immigration expert at the libertarian Cato Institute, previously told PolitiFact. “A very small percentage may come to commit ordinary crimes, like selling drugs, but overwhelmingly, they are coming for economic opportunity and freedom.”
McCarthy’s office did not respond to our request for more information. A Blackburn spokesperson pointed us to a Fox News reporter’s post on X. Customs and Border Protection did not confirm whether 18 people were stopped in September.
Here’s what we know about who is on the terrorist watchlist, and what the data can and can’t tell us:
What is the terrorist watchlist and who is on it?
The terrorist watchlist, run by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, is a federal database of people who are either known or suspected terrorists.
“Known terrorists” include people who have been charged, arrested, indicted or convicted of a terrorism-related crime or who belong to a foreign terrorist organization.
“Suspected terrorists” are people who are “reasonably suspected to be” involved in terrorist activities.
U.S. government agencies nominate people to the terrorist watchlist, and those names are vetted by the National Counterterrorism Center or the FBI.
For years, civil liberty groups have cited concerns about the nomination process and its lack of transparency. People are not told they are on the watchlist and are not privy to the evidence that landed them on it. The standard for being included, “reasonable suspicion,” allows intelligence analysts to rely on rational inferences, not jus facts, when deciding if someone has ties to terrorism, the Congressional Research Service wrote in a 2016 report.
Most encounters with people on watchlist happen at northern border
U.S. Customs and Border Protection releases the number of times immigration officials encounter a known or suspected terrorist each fiscal year. While there is a lot of information the government doesn’t disclose, such as the nationality of people apprehended, the available data do not support the impression of routine terrorist crossings at the southern border.
Most of the 736 encounters in fiscal year 2023 (which ended Sept. 30) happened at the northern border at official checkpoints (484 in total). There were 80 encounters at official checkpoints at the southern border.
Encounters between ports of entry along the southern border were higher in 2023 (169) than in 2022 (98) and 2021 (15).
But CBP says it’s “very uncommon” for border authorities to encounter people on the terrorist watchlist. At the southern border between ports of entry in 2023, for example, such encounters represented 0.0083% of all the 2 million encounters.
What the numbers don’t say
Data on encounters represent events, not people. If one person tries to come in three times in a year and is stopped each time, that counts as three encounters.
Additionally, border officials can deny entry to people on the terrorist watchlist. An encounter does not equal an entry into the country.
A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told PolitiFact the agency vets everyone who is encountered. People who pose a threat to national security or public safety are denied admission, detained, removed or referred to other federal agencies for possible prosecution.
It means “that potential terrorists are not getting through but rather are being detected,” even when they try crossing between official ports of entry, said Denise Gilman, immigration clinic co-director at the University of Texas School of Law.
People on the list are “subject to extremely high scrutiny and are almost certainly detained indefinitely by CBP while they determine what to do with them,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director for the American Immigration Council, an immigrants’ rights group. “They are not just waved on through.”
Even if people on the watchlist were allowed into the country to apply for asylum or any sort of immigration protection, they would be sent to immigration detention while a judge hears their case, said Adam Isacson, defense oversight director at the Washington Office on Latin America, a research and human rights advocacy group.
Flaws in watchlist data make it a bad indicator of threat
Some people on the watchlist have not been deemed terrorists by the U.S. government, but they might be affiliated with people, such as family members, who are known or suspected terrorists, according to CBP.
Additionally, some people on the list might be affiliated with a designated foreign terrorist organization that does not pose a threat to the U.S., such as inactive domestic guerrilla groups, said Alex Nowrasteh, the Cato Institute’s vice president for economic and social policy studies.
Nowrasteh recently testified to Congress that none of the people involved in U.S. terrorist attacks from 1975 to 2022 had crossed the southern border illegally.
The federal government’s encounters data can include false positives of matches on the terrorist watchlist, such as people who were added to the watchlist because they share the same name or birthdate as someone listed.
A ‘false analogy’
Experts dismissed the idea that Hamas’ attack on Israel is in any way analogous to U.S. border security concerns.
There isn’t a terrorist movement in Mexico, Central America or South America that targets the U.S. or compares with Hamas targeting Israel, Nowrasteh said. Hamas’ charter calls for the destruction of Israel.
Ernesto Castañeda-Tinoco, director of American University’s Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, said, “There is no evidence of members of Hamas in Mexico preparing attacks on the U.S. The geopolitical situation at the U.S.-Mexico border is different from the one between Israel and Palestine.”
Jason M. Blazakis, director of Middlebury College’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, said the comparison was a “false analogy.”
“The vast majority of people who are at the southern border are trying to escape criminal gangs and drug trafficking organization violence,” he said.
Our sources
- PolitiFact, Hamas militants ‘pouring’ across U.S. southern border? Donald Trump’s claim is Pants on Fire!, Oct. 12, 2023
- NBC News, Full McCarthy: I don’t need the speakership ‘title. I’m going to help in any way I can’, Oct. 22, 2023
- X, post, Oct. 21, 2023
- Congressional Research Service, The Terrorist Screening Database: Background Information, June 17, 2016
- FBI, Frequently Asked Questions, April 11, 2016
- U.S. State Department, Foreign Terrorist Organizations, accessed Oct. 24, 2023
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CBP Enforcement Statistics Fiscal Year 2023, accessed Oct. 24, 2023
- Cato Institute, Terrorist Entry Through the Southwest Border, Sept. 13, 2023
- CBS News, Are terrorists trying to enter the U.S. through the southern border? Here are the facts., Oct. 11, 2023
- Fox News, Iranian illegal immigrant caught at border not on terror watchlist after further vetting: DHS official, Feb. 1, 2023
- Council on Foreign Relations, What Is Hamas?, Oct. 9, 2023
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Threat Assessment 2024, September 2023
- Legal Information Institute, inference, accessed Oct. 26, 2023
- Legal Information Institute, reasonable suspicion, accessed Oct. 26, 2023
- FBI, Terrorist Screening Center, accessed Oct. 26, 2023
- The Washington Post, The FBI’s terrorism watch list violates the Constitution, federal judge says, Sept. 5, 2019
- American Civil Liberties Union, Discriminatory Profiling, accessed Oct. 26, 2023
- X, Post, Oct. 21, 2023
- Email exchange, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director for the American Immigration Council, Sept. 19, 2023
- Email exchange, Adam Isacson, Director for Defense Oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America, Sept. 19, 2023
- Email exchange, Denise Gilman, co-director of the immigration clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, Oct. 25, 2023
- Email exchange, Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of immigration law at Cornell Law School, Oct. 25, 2023
- Email exchange, Ernesto Castañeda, director for the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University, Oct. 25, 2023
- Email exchange, spokesperson for Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Oct. 25, 2023
- Email exchange, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson, Oct. 25, 2023
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Two companies tied to a Dallas investor filed a federal lawsuit to lift a moratorium in an ongoing East Texas water dispute, alleging a groundwater district has illegally blocked their efforts to extract water from beneath land they own.
This is the latest legal action taken in a growing battle over groundwater resources in East Texas.
Kyle Bass, a venture capitalist and owner of Redtown Ranch Holdings LLC and Pine Bliss LLC, is seeking to end a moratorium on large-scale water extraction projects imposed by the Neches & Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District. The lawsuit, filed through Redtown Ranch and Pine Bliss, argues that the conservation district violated the constitutional rights of Bass and his companies by denying access to water beneath the land and also seeks an undisclosed amount of compensation.
Redtown Ranch and Pine Bliss, both funded by Bass’ private equity firm Conservation Equity Management, filed permits with the Neches & Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District to drill 43 water wells across two counties that, when fully operational, could extract billions of gallons of water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.
“What we’re trying to do here is just prevent the district from weaponizing its regulatory power to strip my clients of their property rights,” said Mollie Mallory, an attorney with Tillotson Patton, the law firm representing Redtown Ranch and Pine Bliss LLC. “The whole purpose here is just to hold them accountable and to get them to follow their own rules.”
Bass said he hasn’t been treated fairly by the district despite following its rules for years. He said the roadblocks enacted by the district, such as the moratorium, prevented his company from testing the groundwater beneath land he owns.
“This is bigger than just what happened to me,” Bass wrote in a statement to The Texas Tribune. “My lawsuit is about protecting the property rights of all Texas landowners and making clear that government regulators cannot simply change the rules to pick winners and losers.”
The groundwater district had not been served with the new lawsuit as of Wednesday afternoon, said Holli Pryor-Baze of Skelton Slusher Barnhill Watkins Wells PLLC, the attorney representing the groundwater district.
“We certainly disagree with the allegations, but are not prepared to say more than that,” she said.
A board meeting for the district will be held next week, at which time Pryor-Baze said she hoped to have been served and given time to think through the lawsuit.
Battle over water rights
The lawsuit follows a yearslong battle over groundwater access that reached a fevered pitch during the second special session of the 2025 legislative session in August. State lawmakers at the time tried and failed to set a statewide moratorium on projects of this magnitude until the state could study its aquifers to determine how much water is available and how quickly the groundwater supply replenishes.
It all began when Conservation Equity Management purchased thousands of acres in Houston, Anderson and Henderson counties with the intent to drill 43 high-capacity water wells. The latter two counties are represented by a groundwater conservation district that gave initial approvals for the project to move forward because the applications were administratively complete, a legal term meaning they were filled out properly.
The project drew the ire of East Texans, who were already angry at a number of Dallas-area organizations seeking to extract water from the region. But poultry producer Wayne-Sanderson Farms LLC, which has operations in East Texas, sued to stop the project, claiming that the wells would drain the area of its main water source and impact its operations. Wayne-Sanderson Farms uses water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer for its processing plants and feed mills.
A district judge approved a settlement between the groundwater conservation district and Sanderson Farms and barred the district from approving certain applications until the aquifer could be studied. It also voided the original decision that the applications were administratively complete.
Then, on May 21, 2026, the district adopted a resolution calling for a moratorium on any “new non-exempt groundwater permit applications.” This moratorium prevents the district from taking action on applications for projects that don’t provide water for local use, such as for households, agriculture or local businesses.
The moratorium will end in October or when the district finishes reviewing and updating its rules — whichever is later. The district is in the process of doing so right now, Pryor-Baze said.
Conservation Equity Management sued to vacate the judge’s moratorium, then filed the latest lawsuit to stop the district’s moratorium in federal court in Tyler on July 7.
The goal is to allow Pine Bliss and Redtown Ranch to finish the administrative process as laid out in the district’s bylaws. This would include going through the State Office of Administrative Hearings before beginning operations.
“We would just continue down that road with the hope that we eventually get to do exploratory drilling to see what water is on their land,” Mallory said.
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Miami, FL
7 more women arrested at southwest Miami-Dade massage parlors, accused of prostitution in undercover sting
Seven more women have been arrested at massage parlors across Miami-Dade, following a wave of arrests in an undercover prostitution sting operation run by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.
All seven women appeared in bond court facing prostitution charges as well as running a massage business without a license. The arrests come a day after seven other women were arrested at massage parlors in southwest Miami-Dade. Those locations were closed after the first round of arrests.
According to arrest reports, the women would offer sexual acts to an undercover detective after a massage. They would also charge, according to the reports, prices ranging from $50 to $150.
The women’s ages ranged from 46 to 67 years old:
- Yaoying Lin, 58
- Xiufen Lin, 51
- Yan Xi, 48
- Zixuan Wang, 46
- Mei Hui Lin, 49
- Quirong Xu, 67
- Hongli Ren, 63
Miami-Dade Corrections
Judge Mindy Glazer presided over the bond court appearances. During the proceedings, she referenced charges of “committing a lascivious act and engaging in prostitution,” according to CBS News Miami’s reporting from the courthouse.
Yaoying Lin’s attorney, Paul Petruzzi, persuaded the judge to reduce her charge from a felony to a misdemeanor.
“She’s resided in Miami for many years. Married. And has never failed to appear,” Petruzzi said.
“They had my client held overnight. She was charged with a felony unfairly. To the point where a judge on her own dismissed it. It’s either real bad, bad, bad police work. Or it’s something else. A little bit more nefarious. I’m afraid the latter,” Petruzzi said.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said that they will not be providing any interviews regarding this undercover sting at this time.
ATLANTA – Atlanta police are searching for three masked men who drove a rental truck directly through the brick wall of a downtown clothing store early Wednesday morning. Investigators say the thieves heavily ransacked the business before making a quick escape.
Atlanta smash-and-grab details
What we know:
The burglary occurred just before 5 a.m. Wednesday at Identity-ATL, a high-end streetwear shop on the 100 block of Walker Street SW. Police say three masked men repeatedly rammed a U-Haul truck into the side of the building, smashing a massive hole in the brick wall.
Store owner Rod Thomas received an urgent call from his alarm company and rushed to his business as fast as he could. The thieves grabbed whatever clothing items they could get their hands on, drove away a white pickup truck, and left behind a pile of rubble.
Shop owners react to destruction
What they’re saying:
Thomas what he saw when he arrived at his store. He worked so hard to build. “I was just speechless, for real,” Thomas said. “I’m just distraught, you know.”
Despite the blow to his storefront, Thomas remains determined to move forward. “I rather they not do that. But I have to move forward,” Thomas said, offering a straightforward message to the thieves: “Do something better. That’s what I would say.”
Phillip Louissaint, who owns Saint’s Professional Grooming barbershop in the same building, said the neighborhood is normally a safe, pleasant place to do business. “It’s very disturbing,” Louissaint said. “Actually, it’s disturbing a little bit. We haven’t had any signs of anything like this happening here.”
Search for masked suspects
What we don’t know:
Police have not yet provided a physical description of the three suspects who remain on the loose. Authorities have also not released an official dollar amount or total value for the clothing items that were stolen during the raid.
No injuries were reported during the crash or the subsequent robbery. Investigators are currently reviewing area surveillance videos to track down the white pickup truck and identify the men responsible.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from store owner Rod Thomas and neighboring business owner Phillip Louissaint, who explained how they experienced the incident.
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