Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told the Daily Caller in a statement Tuesday that it removed a press release about two Yemeni men apprehended at the border because it contained “information related to national security.”
CBP’s press release, published Monday, noted that the two men were arrested near the Calexico Port of Entry in California after attempting to illegally cross the border into the U.S. Both men were found to be on the FBI’s no-fly list and Terrorism Screening Database.
The press release led to an “access denied” page as of Tuesday. A CBP spokesperson told the Caller that the news release “was not properly reviewed” prior to being published.
‘Access denied’ message now appears https://t.co/G8RXbHdFSu
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 6, 2021
“The news release in question was not properly reviewed and contained certain disclosure and policy information related to national security that required CBP to remove it from our website,” the spokesperson said. (RELATED: CBP Press Release For Apprehended Yemeni Men Found On FBI Terrorist Watchlist Now Leads To ‘Access Denied’ Page)
An archived version of the post remains live, though not directly through the CBP’s website.
One of the men noted in the press release, aged 26, was apprehended March 30 and the other individual, aged 33, was arrested Jan. 29.
The FBI’s terror watchlist has come under scrutiny in the past. The Intercept reported in 2014 that “nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group.”