The Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI did not respond to Friday press inquiries from The Tennessee Star that sought to establish whether the federal government is investigating the Mauritanian illegal immigrant who allegedly shot an orthodox Jewish man in Chicago on October 26.
Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, a 22-year-old illegal immigrant from Mauritania, was arrested by local police and charged by county prosecutors after the shooting, but authorities have yet to reveal a motive for the attack despite reports the shooter allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” in a shootout with police after that happened immediately after he shot the orthodox Jewish man, and after additional hate crime and terrorism charges were announced against Abdallahi by Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx on Thursday.
No Hate Crime Charges in Chicago shooting and subsequent police shootout in West Rogers Park over the weekend for Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi … multiple felony counts including attempted murder.
According to multiple sources, Abdallahi yelled “Allahu Akbar” and shot a Jewish man… https://t.co/fGJqJkO4fW pic.twitter.com/pT0XTTFAJU
— SubX.News (@SubxNews) October 28, 2024
Immigration expert Todd Bensman questioned the lack of federal involvement in the case during a Friday appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Noting he posed a series of questions about the federal government’s involvement and the processes that led to Abdallahi’s release by federal immigration officials in a blog post published by the Center for Immigration Studies, where Bensman is a Senior National Security Fellow, he argued there are questions about the attack that only the federal government can answer.
“Where are the feds on this thing?” Bensman told Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, citing questions about to the attack Abdallahi allegedly committed that Cook County and Illinois “have nothing to do with” and “can’t answer at all.”
On my radio show today @BensmanTodd asked why the federal government (DOJ, FBI) has left it to local officials in Chicago to charge illegal alien in attack on Jewish resident. https://t.co/BJZBULm6aZ https://t.co/PdiyBYQ4Rx
— MichaelPatrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) November 1, 2024
The Star asked the DOJ on Friday whether it is pursuing a case against Abdallahi over his alleged attack, but The Star did not receive a response or an explanation of why the federal government is not pursuing its own charges.
Similarly, the FBI did not respond to a Friday inquiry from The Star that sought to establish whether the agency is investigating the attack or whether the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating the possibility the illegal immigrant could have accomplices in Mauritania.
While neither the DOJ nor FBI replied to press inquiries, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesman told The Star that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could provide more information about when Abdallahi illegally entered the country and how the Mauritanian national was screened against criminal and terrorist databases.
Erin Bultje, the deputy press secretary for ICE’s Midwest Team, told The Star on Friday that Abdallahi “was encountered by U.S. Border Patrol on March 31, 2023, near San Ysidro, California.”
The ICE official declined to state when Abdallahi was screened against criminal and terrorist databases, whether the Mauritanian national was interviewed by federal immigration officials prior to his release into the country, or if the federal government has special procedures for illegal immigrants from countries like Mauritania, when contacted by The Star.
A report published by the U.S. State Department in 2022 called Mauritania “an excellent security and regional counterterrorism partner for the United States,” explaining that “[c]ountering terrorist activity remains the top priority for the Mauritanian government.”
It is unclear how Abdallahi traveled from Mauritania, a West African nation, to San Ysidro, California. However, The New York Post reported in August 2023 that thousands of West Africans illegally entered the United States after making stops in Turkey, Colombia, El Salvador, Managua, and Nicaragua through a route advertised on the internet.
More recently, while reporting in southern Mexico, Bensman interviewed an Iranian national who claimed he traversed 11 countries during his quest to illegally enter the United States.
Watch Bensman’s full appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo ” Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi” by Sub.X News.
