2 Pakistanis Held After Check of Terror Database
Two Pakistani men were being held on possible immigration violations Wednesday after an airline employee at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport found one of their names on a terrorism-related “no-fly” list, authorities said.
Port of Seattle police detained the men Saturday and turned them over to the FBI.
“We’re looking at how they entered the country. Sometime in the near future they’ll be scheduled for an immigration hearing,” said Michael Milne, a spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
No charges have been filed against the men, whose names were not released.
One of them, age 36, had a Canadian driver’s license and paid cash for a one-way ticket to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, the Seattle Times reported.
The other man, age 29, was carrying a New York driver’s license and also paid cash for a one-way ticket to Kennedy airport on a different airline, according to police reports.
Both used Pakistani passports, the Seattle Times said, citing unidentified sources. The newspaper said the men told investigators that they paid to be smuggled in from Canada last month.
The men were detained Saturday night after an American Airlines employee and a ticket agent from another major airline ran their names through the Transportation Security Administration’s database of suspected terrorists.
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