The Biden-Harris Department of Homeland Security (DHS), between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, released into American communities 99 individuals who are on the U.S. terrorist watchlist, according to an Aug. 5 House Judiciary Committee subcommittee report.
In that time period, a total of 250 illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist were encountered by Border Patrol at the southwest border. Along with the 99 who were released, at least 34 others are in DHS custody but have not yet been removed from the United States, said the Interim Staff Report of the Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.
Other highlights from the report:
• So far during fiscal year 2024, Border Patrol has encountered tens of thousands of illegal aliens nationwide from countries that could present national security risks, including 2,134 Afghan nationals, 33,347 Chinese nationals, 541 Iranian nationals, 520 Syrian nationals, and 3,104 Uzbek nationals.
• Of the eight Tajik nationals with potential ISIS ties that ICE arrested in June 2024, three were released into the country after using the Biden-Harris-Administration’s CBP One phone application to schedule an appointment at a port of entry, four were initially encountered by Border Patrol while crossing the border, and one arrived at a port of entry without scheduling a CBP One app appointment. Just last year, however, Secretary Mayorkas boasted about the vetting capabilities through the CBP One app, claiming the app “[a]llows [DHS] to screen and vet individuals before they arrive at our border.”
• ICE officials have revealed to the Committee that officers encounter members and affiliates of terrorist organizations in their areas of responsibility, with one senior ICE official admitting that the Biden-Harris border crisis has made it more difficult for officers to arrest national security threats in the United States. If a national security threat recently crossed the border, ICE finds it “very difficult” to locate the illegal alien in the United States, given the alien’s lack of a “digital footprint” in the country.
• The Biden-Harris border crisis has exposed national security loopholes in multiple departments related to the use of classified information in immigration court proceedings. With an immigration judge granting bond to a potential terrorist earlier this year after not being told the alien was a national security threat, the nation’s Chief Immigration Judge admitted to the Committee that only about five percent of immigration judges are able to access top secret information. The official also conceded to the Committee that she “imagine[d] there may be” gaps in the information that DHS shares with immigration judges about whether an illegal alien should be detained due to being a danger to the community or a flight risk.
• Immigration judges granted bond to at least 27 aliens on the terrorist watchlist who were encountered between ports of entry at the southwest border between fiscal years 2021 and 2023. Additionally, immigration judges granted asylum to at least four watchlisted aliens, with at least two additional known or suspected terrorists having their cases terminated by an immigration judge.
"With the border in chaos under the Biden-Harris Administration, the terrorist threat to the homeland has skyrocketed," the report said. "This border insecurity has been the Administration’s choice, and it is a mistake. As detailed in the 9/11 Commission Report, '[i]n the decade before September 11, 2001, border security—encompassing travel, entry, and immigration—was not seen as a national security matter.' As a result, Islamic extremist terrorists were able to carry out a terrorist attack on U.S. soil that killed nearly 3,000 Americans."
The report continued: "More than two decades later, national security experts are again sounding the alarm about the increasing chance of terrorism in the United States due to the Biden-Harris Administration’s open-borders policies. A former FBI assistant director publicly warned just weeks ago about a potential terrorist attack emanating from the border crisis."
Last December, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he saw “blinking lights everywhere” he turned in relation to national security threats.
At a hearing before the Committee last month, Wray testified that he is “increasingly concerned that foreign terrorists could seek to exploit vulnerabilities at our southwest border or at other ports of entry, or in other aspects of our immigration system, to facilitate an attack here in the United States.”
A DHS Threat Assessment from 2023 similarly highlighted that “[i]ndividuals with terrorism connections are interested in using established travel routes and permissive environments to facilitate access to the United States.”
The Biden-Harris team continues to downplay the threat of terrorists crossing the border, the report said.
"DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas repeatedly claims that illegal aliens are adequately screened and 'individuals who pose a threat to national security or public safety are detained,' " the report said.
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