Lebanese Migrant Apprehended Near El Paso Planned to Make a Bomb in NY

By Hamodia Staff

A migrant born in Bori El Brajneh, Lebanon, who was caught illegally sneaking across the border on March 9, admitted that he is a member of Hezbollah, and that he planned to make a bomb when he reached his destination of New York, a US Border Patrol record showed.

Basel Bassel Ebbadi, 22, was apprehended by border patrol on March 9 near Zone 24 of the El Paso border Patrol Station. He was transported to the El Paso Hardened Facility for further processing and investigation, and on March 11, he was asked what he was doing in the US.

“I’m going to try to make a bomb,” he replied. He was then placed in isolation and referred to Tactical Terrorism Response Team (TTRT) agents for review.

When questioned on why he came to the country by border patrol officers, Ebbadi reportedly said: “I’m going to try to make a bomb.”

In a sworn interview after his arrest, Ebbadi said that he had trained with Hezbollah for seven years and served as an active member guarding weapons locations for another four years, the New York Post reported.

Ebbadi said in an interview that he had been trained by Hezbollah terrorists for seven years, and served the terror group for four years as a weapons guard. His training was to carry out “jihad” and to kill anyone that “was not Muslim,” he admitted.

The Post reports that border agents are seeing a record-breaking number of people entering the country who are on terrorism watchlists.

However, Ebbadi said he “didn’t want to kill people,” which is why he fled Lebanon, despite making terrorist threats to Tactical Terrorism Response Team personnel in a subsequent interview, in addition to his stating that he wanted to make a bomb.

“Once you’re in, you can never get out,” Ebbadi said, regarding Hezbollah.

Internal documents show he was marked for deportation from the US, although it was not clear which country he would be returned to.

Border agents recorded 98 encounters of terror watch-listed individuals at both the northern and southern borders in fiscal year 2022, an almost twice as many, 172, in the 2023 fiscal year which ends September 20. So far in the first four months of 2024, 59 people have been apprehended, according to federal data.

The total number of terror watch-listed encounters between fiscal years 2017 and 2021 amounted to just 30 people, but the criteria for being on the list has been changed.

“This underscores the need for border security measures as potential threats to both public safety and national security are evident and exploit security vulnerabilities,” Texas DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez told The Post.

“The federal government has failed to enact border security measures, and the state of Texas, through Governor Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, will continue to take unprecedented action to help secure the border,” Olivarez said.

According to documents obtained by the Post, Ebbadi is set for deportation, but the country he is headed to is not known at this time.