A Lebanese migrant who was caught illegally crossing the border near El Paso said he was ‘going to try to make a bomb,’ according to official records.
Basel Bassel Ebbadi, 22, also admitted he was a member of Hezbollah when he was intercepted by agents at the southwest Texas border with Mexico on March 9.
He was asked what he was doing in the US while in custody, to which he responded: ‘I’m going to try to make a bomb’ and he was on the way to New York.
Ebbadi said he trained with Hezbollah for seven years before taking on a role guarding weapons locations for another four years, according to ICE records seen by the New York Post.
Ebbadi said his training focused on ‘jihad’ and killing people ‘that was not Muslim’ – but he fled the country because he ‘didn’t want to kill people.’
‘Once you’re in, you can never get out,’ he added, according to the ICE papers.
The Lebanese national came to the US without any documentation. He said he lost his papers while he was being robbed at knifepoint in Costa Rica.
He also admitted to relaying a fake date of birth and name to officials.
Ebbadi was detained in isolation at the El Paso Hardened Facility before he was interviewed by the Tactical Terrorism Response Team.
He was marked for deportation from the US, but it’s unclear which country he would be taken to.
Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist militant political party recognized by the West as a terror group.
Members of the group killed three American troops in Jordan late January in a drone attack. At least 34 people were also injured in the strike.
The wave of migrants arriving at the southern border has continued throughout most of President Joe Biden’s tenure. It has led to millions of migrants pouring into the country and straining cities.
