GOP Rep demands answers from Biden admin over why Jordanian who attempted to breach Quantico was still in the US
Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) is asking the Biden administration why federal authorities waited to arrest a Jordanian national who overstayed his student visa until he and an accomplice tried to breach the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, The Post has learned.
The student visa overstay was only realized after the man and another Jordanian national, who had crossed the southern border illegally, tried to ram their way into the highly fortified Quantico base on May 3.
The vehicle was stopped by quick-thinking guards who deployed an anti-vehicle barrier to stop the box truck.
Arrington sent a letter Thursday to leaders at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) asking how and why the student was allowed to overstay their visa for 16 months without the authorities taking any action.
“We are concerned someone who applied and was granted a student visa was conspiring with an illegal immigrant to breach a military base.
“This is a symptom of a now widespread issue – Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) disregarding the national security risk of allowing foreign nationals to remain in the country illegally,” Arrington wrote in his letter.
The congressman raised concerns about the 387 Jordanians who were recorded as overstaying their student visas in the fiscal year 2022, which ran from October 2021 to September 2022.
The overstays accounted for 12% of the total number of Jordanian student visa holders that year.
“We urge ICE to perform its duty to deport individuals who overstay student visas. Currently, ICE is derelict in its statutory duty of immigration enforcement,” he added.
The Jordanian pair told guards at an entrance to the base they were Amazon subcontractors making a delivery, Capt. Michael Curtis, a spokesman for the base, previously told The Post.
Guards determined the two were lying and actually had no business being there, but needed to deploy the barriers after the pair ignored their instructions and tried to break their way onto the base, Curtis said.
Former Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill recently told The Post the attempted breach could’ve been a possible “dry run,” most likely for “Al Qaeda or ISIS,” to “see how far they can get a truck into the base.”
“It looks like it was a test run for something else like truck bombs because they tried to get in saying they were delivery drivers then sped up as the barricades popped up,” O’Neill said.
“The [Jordanians] are lucky they weren’t shot,” he added.
