patrick.net

Last year, media outlets rushed to condemn President Donald Trump and his administration’s claims that terrorists were crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

While the precise number may have been exaggerated, there was at least one major piece of evidence that terrorists could use the U.S. immigration system to illegally cross the border from Mexico and commit an act of terrorism: The fact that someone had done it. ...

Sharif is a Somali national who came to the U.S. illegally in 2011 after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The CBC reported that while the “vast majority of Somalis arrived in the United States as refugees” and were “screened and approved for refugee status before entering the United States,” that is not how Sharif came to America. It appears he traveled to South America from Africa, and then illegally entered the U.S. It is unclear whether or not he made an asylum claim after entering the U.S. Asylum claims made after entering the U.S. are usually denied.

Either way, an immigration judge ordered Sharif to be deported from the U.S. to Somalia. Sharif did not appeal the order but was never deported. Instead, he made his way to Canada, where he allegedly committed the terrorist attack in 2017.