Has President Joe Biden's lax border policy welcomed a national security threat into the United States? Since he took office, the number of potential terrorists apprehended on America's southwest perimeter has increased dramatically. And in too many cases, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released illegal aliens on the FBI's terrorist watchlist into the country to wander about at will.
In a hearing before the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee last month, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confessed that 42 people on the FBI's terror watchlist might have been set free. And earlier, in April, Mayorkas testified he could not explain where these potential terrorists were.
It is true that the FBI's terror and no-fly watchlists have snagged some innocent people whose names should be removed. But when it comes to the most recent illegal aliens apprehended, "the FBI watchlist through which these people's names were flagged states with certainty that those on it are 'reasonably suspected to be involved in terrorism (or related activities),'" explained Cynthia Van Gaasbeck in Law Enforcement Today.
The alarming spike in the number of illegal aliens on the terror watchlist apprehended by Border Patrol represents a clear national security threat. The immediacy of the danger is far greater than that of China. According to the most recent Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) statistics described in a Fox News broadcast, the problem of potential terrorists caught entering the United States has increased significantly. Less than 18 months into the Biden administration, the number of illegals on the FBI watchlist stopped at the border is 65, or nearly six times more potential extremist fanatics who sought to attack America than during the four years of Donald Trump. Statistics show 42 "watchlisters" were caught in one month – May 2022.
The US CBP under Mayorkas is encouraged to be lenient with illegal border crossings, given the catch-and-release policy in place. With a growing number of would-be terrorists apprehended, how many were caught and released? A Center for Immigration Studies analysis explained the problem:
"Still, these figures represent only publicly reportable cases and would not represent, for instance, terrorism-associated migrants who evaded detection altogether or who simply had not been watchlisted or never raised suspicion after apprehension as they were released pending asylum claims into the country's interior."
But those released under such conditions seldom, if ever, show up for their day in court. Compounding the problem are those who sneak across the US border and elude capture. "A high-level CBP source told Fox News that there have been 440,000 known gotaways [equal to the population of Minneapolis, MN] since the fiscal year began in October -- with over 50,000 in May alone," Bill Melugin and Adam Shaw reported for Fox News. There have been more than 1.5 million illegal crossings in FY2022 so far, and the probability of potential terrorists among them is high. Essentially, the number of people invading the United States is equal to the combined populations of Boston and Seattle.
Americans have no way to know in what US city a terrorist attack will take place. Yet, with the casual, even lawless approach to allowing into the homeland potential illegal alien terrorist bombers or assassins bent on doing major harm, the Biden administration has created a near-term threat more immediate than that of any foreign enemy state. Americans are being held hostage by a DHS that is no longer protecting the homeland. The agency is not doing its job; it's doing the opposite.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
