MICHAEL MASTERS: Trump must banish illegal immigrant terrorists who target Jews
Last month, 18-year-old George Mason University freshman Abdullah Hassan, described as "tall and skinny," who is studying Information Technology, appeared in a federal magistrate’s courtroom in Virginia.
The charge?
Plotting a mass casualty attack targeting Jews.
The case began in May when the Fairfax County Police Department passed an anonymous tip to the FBI about an X account that engaged in "radical and terrorist-leaning behavior," including voicing support for ISIS and Al Qaeda.
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The FBI monitored Hassan allegedly talking to an informant about traveling to support ISIS. In October, his thoughts turned closer to home: He began discussing a terrorist attack in the United States – recruiting the other person in a scheme to kill Jews.
Allegedly sending the informant a "pro-ISIS video that called for the killing of Jews" in mid-November, Hassan then shared instructions on "how to prepare a martyrdom video" and bomb-making.
Hassan urged the informant to livestream the attack. He was logged into the livestream, writing, "See you in heaven in the afterlife," when FBI agents burst through his door and arrested him.
The tracking and arrest of Hassan represents some of the phenomenal work undertaken by law enforcement, but a bigger question looms: Why was it necessary?
Hassan had a previous encounter with law enforcement in 2022, when he was interviewed by the FBI over statements he made online supporting ISIS and Al Qaeda. That’s troubling enough. But worse, Hassan, an Egyptian national, is currently in removal proceedings with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This fact gets only one line in the federal affidavit supporting the criminal charge against Hassan.
How was a foreign national who was a known terrorist sympathizer allowed to remain in the country, up to the point that he was actively plotting an attack to kill American citizens, Jews, in particular?
Hassan isn’t the only individual in the country illegally or in removal proceedings who has worked to plot or participate in violence directed at the Jewish community.
Here’s another: Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, a Mauritanian national, is accused of shooting an Orthodox Jewish man multiple times on Oct. 26 as the man made his way to a Chicago synagogue. According to law enforcement, Abdallahi used his cellphone to scour for synagogues and Jewish community centers in the area shortly before the attack. His phone also contained more than 100 "antisemitic and pro-Hamas" images and videos. He was facing more than a dozen charges, including attempted murder, hate crime and a felony count of terrorism when he committed suicide in his jail cell.
Law enforcement sources noted that Abdallahi is an illegal immigrant, apprehended by Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector in March 2023 -- yet allowed to enter the U.S.
In order to protect American lives, the threat from foreign nationals with ties to violent extremist groups must be taken seriously. There is no excuse for someone to be in this country – whether under a tourist, work, or student visa – when they have been found to be associated with a foreign terrorist organization.
Around the country, security professionals, many of whom are former members of law enforcement, are working to protect Jewish communities. But we shouldn’t have to do it against a stacked deck. When people who support the agendas of foreign terrorist organizations are allowed into or to remain in our country, something needs to change.
The Immigration and Nationality Act provides that "[a]ny alien who … endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization" is "ineligible to receive [a] visa[] and ineligible to be admitted to the United States." Moreover, anyone who "knowingly provides material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so" commits a federal crime. The courts have ruled that this includes "speech to, under the direction of, or in coordination with foreign groups that the speaker knows to be terrorist organizations." Our First Amendment and other freedoms do not protect persons who provide material support to these "particularly dangerous and lawless foreign organizations."
The time has come to take a serious look at the laws and regulations in place. If a non-citizen is providing material support to a terrorist organization – whether through chanting pro-Hamas slogans on a college campus or planning to murder Jews – they have lost the privilege of being in the United States.
The laws to protect our country are on the books. The incoming Trump Administration must enforce them.