The number of terror suspects captured trying to enter the U.S. illegally has soared since President Joe Biden took office.
But with more than 1 million unidentified foreign nationals evading apprehension after entering the U.S., the potential that at least some are on the international terrorist watch list poses a potential major threat to national security and raises the chances of terror attacks, observers warn.
Federal data shows 525 known or suspected terrorists were apprehended by agents at the northern and southern borders as they tried to illegally enter the country through the first nine months of this fiscal year. That is up from 478 all of last fiscal year.
The elevated figure does not include the terror suspects who illegally entered the country and evaded arrest, what U.S. Custom and Border Protection calls “gotaways.” According to CBP agents who spoke exclusively to The Center Square, there have been 1.7 million “gotaways” since the beginning of 2021, when Biden took office, at least some of whom could have been on the terror suspect list. CBP doesn't release gotaway data publicly.
“Our open borders and easily abused asylum policies are not just a magnet for millions of economic migrants, they are also an open invitation for people who are intent on doing harm to our nation,” Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform told The Center Square. “International terrorist organizations and criminal cartels are very aware of our vulnerabilities and will not hesitate to exploit them."
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request from The Center Square for comment.
Lora Ries, former acting deputy chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, told The Center Square that the current state of the border is a major national security threat.
“Remember, the 9/11 terrorist attacks were carried out by just 19 people,” said Ries, who now works as an analyst at the Heritage Foundation. “As this administration lets millions of unknown and potentially dangerous aliens into the country with no oversight, the question of the next attack on American soil becomes less of an ‘if’ and almost certainly ‘when?’”
An overwhelmed border was on full display in a recent government watchdog report. A DHS Office of Inspector General report released in June showed that border patrol agents caught and released a migrant into the U.S. even though the migrant was on the terror watch list.
