Report: Number of people on terror watch lists apprehended at southern border skyrockets

At a time when the world has become increasingly dangerous and where the threat of a terrorist attack on the US homeland appears more likely than at almost any time in the past 22 years, BizPacReview reports that the number of terror suspects on terror watchlists appearing at the US border has skyrocketed.

That report comes a week after a series of terrorist attacks in Israel resulted in over 1,000 deaths, countless injuries, and a number of foreigners—including Americans—being taken hostage.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics, a massive increase in encounters with suspected terrorists at the U.S. border with Mexico has occurred. In FY 2023, the record for encounters on the FBI’s terror watch list was “shattered,” the outlet reports.

Thus far, 151 people on the terror watchlists have been encountered at the southern border. That number equals the past six combined years and omits so-called “gotaways,” those who do not interact with border officials.

Summit News reported, “The stats show that 0.0084% illegals encountered in FY 2023 were on the terror watchlist. Based on that rate and the 1.5 million gotaways, it would mean an additional 1,260 people on the terror watchlist have entered the U.S. completely unimpeded under Biden.”

While the focus on illegals at the southern border has been on Mexican and Central and South American citizens, the number of those of Middle Eastern descent is staggering. Given the current events in the Middle East, that should be of grave concern to American citizens.

Now, with an election coming up in 2024, and with Biden’s team realizing the porous borders, the migrant crisis in numerous American cities, and exploding crime rates would have a detrimental effect on his election chances, the Biden administration has signaled a willingness to build a wall on the border, albeit a small one that will have little if any effect on the current invasion.

“Meanwhile, CBP has recorded 2,206,039 overall Southwest borderland encounters between illegal immigrants and law enforcement officials in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2023. The number of monthly border crossings reached a record high of 252,230 in December and has remained above 100,000 since February 2021, President Joe Biden’s first full month in office,” according to The Christian Post.

“In August, the most recent month where data is available, [we] saw 232,972 illegal border crossings. Should the number of border crossings for September meet or exceed this number, this fiscal year is on track to break the record 2,378,944 annual border crossings registered in fiscal year 2022,” the outlet added.

Continuing, the Post added:

“The number of Southwest borderland encounters between illegal immigrants and law enforcement officials since February 2021 adds up to 5,224,765. This figure exceeds the population of 28 U.S. states as measured by the 2020 U.S. Census."

A former Department of Homeland Security official in the GW Bush and Obama administrations downplayed the possibility that terrorists are flooding across the country within that over five million illegal immigrant count.

“Are terrorists flooding across the border? Probably not,” Theresa Cardinal Brown told CBS News. “But at the same time, it is true that the large number of people arriving does have national security implications.”

While government officials say there are no indications anyone affiliated with Hamas has been apprehended on the southern border, it should be noted that data on illegals appearing on the terror watchlist don’t indicate which radical organization they belong to.

While there are no reports of Hamas, ISIS, or al Qaeda terrorists being nabbed at the border, earlier this year, CBS reported, officials reported a case where a smuggler with ties to ISIS attempted to help illegal aliens from Uzbekistan travel to the southern border. They said there was no indication that the illegals had terrorist links or were plotting an attack.

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement claiming they were “prepared to respond” to any threats to the homeland related to the events in Israel.

“While we do not have specific and credible intelligence indicating a threat to the United States at this time stemming from the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, DHS is closely monitoring unfolding events and will continue to engage in information sharing with our intelligence and law enforcement partners at home and abroad.”

Still, in 2022, the FBI announced it had intercepted a plot by four Iraqi nationals to cross the US-Mexico border to assassinate former President George W. Bush. The FBI explained the plan was an attempt to “provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, specifically ISIS, Bloomberg reported.

In an interview last year, former Border Patrol Chief Ron Vitiello warned that the real risk wasn’t from those identified coming through the border.

“The people that they [CBP] do encounter, I’m less concerned about that,” he said. “The real risk is the people who can pay enough, who are smart enough, to get through.”

Such as those funded by state sponsors of terrorism, such as Iran.

Department of Homeland Security Counterterrorism Coordinator Nicole Rasmussen said the department is trying to increase its capacity at the border; however, it doesn’t have evidence of plots designed to exploit security weaknesses, aka the porous southern border.

“That doesn’t mean, though, that we don’t need to be concerned about and working hard to address the way in which terrorists or people with terrorism links might exploit vulnerabilities at the southern border,” Rasmussen said.

 
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Todd

It would be impossible to try and guess the number of terrorist already here as well as the amount of military grade weaponry and munitions they posess because of our unsecured borders, thanks to our liberal politicans !

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