Illegal immigration status revealed in shooting of Jewish man in Dem-controlled city

Four law enforcement sources say that Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, a Mauritanian national, was apprehended in Border Patrol's San Diego Sector in March 2023 and was released into the U.S.

Police say he attacked the 39-year-old male victim on Saturday morning in Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood. Police said that the suspect was identified less than 30 minutes after the shooting, at which point he allegedly shot at responders before police "returned fire, striking the offender." The victim, who was wearing traditional Jewish clothing, survived the attack.

Mauritania is a majority Muslim country in northwest Africa. The Department of Homeland Security deems illegal immigrants from Mauritania as "special interest aliens" due to security concerns, and they are supposed to receive additional DHS vetting. 

Local Jewish leaders believe this was a targeted hate crime, but no hate crime charges have been filed as of now.

The incident taps into ongoing concerns about the potential for terrorists to come across the southern border, amid the massive numbers of migrants who have come across during the border crisis.

A House report in August found that of the more than 250 illegal immigrants on the terrorist watchlist who were encountered by Border Patrol at the southwest border between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, DHS released at least 99, with at least 34 others in DHS custody but not yet removed from the U.S.

"That does not include the untold numbers of potential terrorists that evaded Border Patrol to enter the United States as part of nearly 2 million 'gotaways' since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration," the report says.

That threat from foreign nationals hit the headlines this month when authorities announced the arrest of an Afghan national, accused of plotting an Election Day terror plot, who had been paroled into the U.S. amid the hasty U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Fox News' Greg Norman contributed to this report.