Overview
- CBP arrested Somali national Said Jama Ahmed near the U.S.–Canada border and is holding him in North Dakota on illegal-entry charges, DHS said Friday.
- The encounter began after an off-duty Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer reported seeing him walking south with a backpack, and a U.S. Border Patrol agent took him into custody about two hours later on April 14.
- Officials say his fingerprints match U.S. Navy records from a 2012 boarding by the destroyer USS Halsey of an Indian-flagged ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.
- Records cited by DHS and ICE say he first entered the U.S. near San Luis, Arizona in September 2022, was detained in 2024 during a search tied to fraudulent documents, and was the subject of a full extradition warrant dated April 24, 2025.
- DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis criticized what she called weak border policies and thanked U.S. and Canadian officers for their coordination, a framing emphasized in right-leaning outlets covering the announcement.