WASHINGTON, DC - The House Judiciary Committee released a chilling report on Thursday, that underscores the urgent need for action, revealing that at least 1.7 million potential national security threats have crossed the porous borders of the United States. The report comes days after a vice presidential debate in which Democrat Tim Walz claimed that border crossings are “down” under the Biden-Harris administration, which is demonstrably false.
In the report, the Committee revealed the staggering scale of the problem, stating that at least “7.6 million illegal aliens, including at least 1.9 million known illegal alien ‘gotaways’” have entered the country due to the administration’s open border policies. It also notes that hundreds of illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist were encountered at the southwest border between 2021 and 2023. They also note that “[the Biden-Harris Department of Homeland Security (DHS)] has released into American communities at least 99, with at least 34 others in DHS custody- but not yet removed from the United States.”
The Committee alleges that “the Biden-Harris Administration has sought to conceal the real consequences of its disastrous policies,” highlighting the crucial need for transparency and accountability in government actions.
“In September 2024, a former senior Border Patrol official told Congress that he was ordered to ‘not release any information’ on the increase of special interest aliens–aliens from countries considered to be a threat to national security or counterintelligence–’or mention any of the arrests’ because, in his words, the Biden-Harris Administration ‘was trying to convince the public there was no threat at the border.’”
Furthermore, the Committee wrote that “for months, the Biden-Harris Administration delayed briefing the Committee and Subcommittee about Mohammad Kharwin, an illegal alien from Afghanistan on the terrorist watchlist.” The administration allowed Kharwin to be released into the United States, but then found out he was on the terror watchlist. DHS, under Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, stonewalled the House Committee for five months before finally providing a briefing on his Kharwin’s case.
However, as has become customary under this DHS, they refused to answer a number of Committee questions, including about the background information that led to Kharwin's placement on the list and his eventual arrest by DHS.
The Committee and Subcommittee were able to identify many policy failures that make the country vulnerable to what were previously outsider threats but are now “inside the gates”:
- Customs and Border Protection has encountered over 1.7 million special interest aliens– defined as aliens from 26 countries the DHS has determined pose the greatest threat to national security and counterintelligence concerns in the U.S. Some of those countries include Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Syria, and Turkey.
- DHS added twelve more nations to the list of special interest countries, including China, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela. Countries recently removed include Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Tunisia.
- DHS told the Judiciary Committee that being on the special interest country list “does not affect an alien’s admissibility into the United States.”
- Aside from allowing illegal aliens into the country whom the Administration knew were on the terror watchlist at the time of their release, others were released who were later found to have potential terrorist ties. Unbelievably, Kharwin initially had a record created for him on the terror watchlist in January 2018, which was updated in 2019 to include a middle name. Due to the name discrepancy–the presence of a middle name and the “w” and “r” transposed in his surname–and a lack of biometric or biographic information in his record, Border Patrol agents released him into the U.S. in 2023 “without alerting Immigration and Customs Enforcement [(ICE)] about possible terrorism ties.”
- Finally, in February 2024, Kharwin’s watchlist record was updated to include biometric and biographic data, allowing officials to positively identify him as being on the terrorist watchlist. He was finally arrested; however, an immigration judge soon ordered him released on bond, and it took DHS an additional two weeks to rearrest Kharwin.
The Judiciary Committee wrote that their interim report “highlights how potential national security and counterintelligence threats from around the world have exploited the Biden-Harris administration’s open-border policies.”
“There can be no doubt that the surge of illegal aliens into the country during the Biden-Harris Administration has weakened our national security and made our communities more vulnerable to those who seek to do us harm,” the Committee wrote. “The Committee and the Immigration Subcommittee will continue this aggressive oversight of the Biden-Harris border crisis to inform legislative reforms to secure the border and improve our national security.”
The report explains how the number of special interest aliens has exploded since Biden-Harris was inaugurated. For example, in FY-2021, “CBP encountered 98,565 special interest aliens nationwide. The number of special interest alien encounters jumped nearly 400 percent by fiscal year 2022, the first full year of the Biden-Harris Administration, to 482,705 such encounters. In fiscal year 2023, CBP encountered 597,058 special interest aliens, a 505 percent increase from fiscal year 2021 and a 24 percent increase from fiscal year 2022. As of September 19, 2024, CBP already had encountered 531,768 special interest aliens for fiscal year 2024.”
A majority of the special interest aliens were encountered at the southwest border.
“Despite recognizing that nationals from special interest countries may pose a heightened threat to the United States, the Biden-Harris Administration maintains that being a national of a special interest country does not affect an illegal alien’s admissibility into the United States,” the Committee wrote.
The Committee then addressed the issue of those encounters of illegal aliens on the terror watchlist, noting that CBP had “encountered at the southwest border a record number of illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist.”
“Even more troubling, ‘of the more than 250 illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist who were encountered by Border Patrol at the southwest border between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, DHS has released into American communities at least 99, with at least 34 others in DHS custody but not yet removed from the United States.’ These staggering figures, however, only represent the number of aliens known to be potential threats at the time of the encounter.”
When Kharwin was released into the United States, he was allowed to do so under a program called “voluntary departure.” According to the Committee, “voluntary departure before the conclusion of an alien’s immigration court proceedings allows the alien to depart the United States at the alien’s own expense so long as the alien ‘[w]aves appeal of all issues’ and ‘[m]akes no additional requests for [immigration] relief.’”
“Voluntary departure does not include a removal order that carries immigration consequences, such as a multi-year bar on reentering the country,” the Committee wrote. “As a result, the alien ‘may be able to return to the U.S. much sooner.’”
One factor considered for voluntary departure is the lack of, or minimal, criminal history. Courts have, for example, not found a favorable exercise of discretion when aliens admitted to sexual relations with a minor or falsely testifying under oath.
In conclusion, the House Judiciary Committee wrote, "the threat facing the United States has only grown under their [Biden-Harris’s] failed leadership.”
“As the case of Mohammad Kharwin exemplifies, the Biden-Harris Administration has sown chaos at America’s borders and allowed potential national security and counterintelligence threats to enter the United States–and, at least in Kharwin’s case, be released into the country multiple times,” the wrote.
In closing, the Committee said that Senate Democrats' failure to consider H.R. 2, the House-passed Secure the Border Act of 2023, must be reconsidered, passed, and signed into law by Biden.
“In the meantime, the Committee and Subcommittee will continue to conduct oversight of the Biden-Harris Administration’s dismantling of immigration enforcement.”
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