NEW: Internal CBP data provided & confirmed by CBP sources reveals thousands of “special interest aliens” from mostly Middle Eastern countries have been apprehended by Border Patrol while crossing into U.S. illegally over last 2 years. Syria: 538 Yemen: 139 Iran: 659 Iraq: 123 Afghanistan: 6,386 Lebanon: 164 Egypt: 3,153 Pakistan: 1,613 Mauritania: 15,594 Uzbekistan: 13,624 Turkey: 30,830 Date range 10/1/2021 - 10/4/2023 These are Border Patrol apprehensions between ports of entry only, this data does not include CBP encounters at ports of entry. Border Patrol sources tell me they have extreme concerns about who is coming into the country because they have little to no way of vetting people from these special interest countries. I’m told unless they have committed a crime previously in the US, or they are on some sort of federal watchlist, there’s no way to know who they are because most of their home countries don’t share data/records with the US so there is nothing to match a name to when BP agents run fingerprints. A special interest alien is a term used by the U.S. government to refer to people coming from countries that have conditions that favor or harbor terrorism, or pose a potential national security to the U.S.