The following includes editorial content which is the opinion of the writer, a former Police Chief and current staff member of Law Enforcement Today.
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US-MEXICO BORDER- On the same day the Pentagon reported that the Islamic State (ISIS) is in the process of developing the “next generation” of ISIS terrorists comes a report from the Washington Times that Customs and Border Patrol agents apprehended 12 illegal aliens last November who also happened to be on the terrorism watch list, data revealed by the Department of Homeland Security said last week.
Border experts say the rising number of terrorism suspects detected is worrying because it signals more are probably getting through. ~ As we all suspect will happen. Just waiting for news of the next 9/11 any day now 💣#USA#BorderCrisis #terroristshttps://t.co/IjefNBvQkn
— Social_MediaPI (@Social_MediaPI) January 7, 2023
That adds on to an additional nine terrorism suspects who were grabbed at the border in October, bringing the total to 21 through only the first two months of the fiscal year.
Recall that it only took 19 terrorists to hijack four planes in 2001, crash one each into the two towers of the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and but for the heroism on United Airlines flight 93 another headed for the US Capitol, thereby committing the worst terrorist attack in US history.
Last fiscal year, a total of 98 terrorism suspects were caught, so the number being caught this year is on a pace to surpass last year. And these are the ones who were caught, not the “got-aways.”
Contrast those numbers with the number between 2017 to 2020 during the majority of the Trump administration, when Border Patrol agents only nabbed eleven terrorism suspects at the southern border, or roughly 90 percent less.
DHS revealed those numbers on the same week Joe Biden announced he will (finally) visit the border city of El Paso, Texas some two years into his administration, which has not only ignored the crisis at the border but has facilitated it.
However the trip to the border is only being made because it’s “on the way” to Mexico, where Biden is scheduled to meet with the Mexican president. That comes as Mexico is in the midst of what may only be described as a civil war between Mexican law enforcement authorities and Mexican drug cartels.
During his visit, Biden is expected to announce his latest executive order scheme designed to bypass the newly minted Republican House majority where he will allow some illegals already in the US to stay in the country and gain some half-assed asylum while allegedly going back to some Trump-era policies which had put a significant damper on the border surge.
In November, CBP agents made 206,239 arrests crossing illegally into the US at the southern border, a record.
Meanwhile, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who is set to become chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee once the Republican-led House is sworn in has laid the blame precisely where it belongs—on the Biden administration.
“President Biden’s radical open borders policies have created a national security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border,” Comer told the Washington Times in a statement. “Those wishing our country and citizens harm are seeking to exploit chaos at the border and enter the United States undetected.”
Typically, terrorism data is included as part of CBP’s monthly operations update, with most of the November numbers having been released the week before Christmas. For unknown reasons, the terrorism numbers were not released until last Thursday.
Previously, DHS refused to release these numbers, believing them to be “too sensitive” to release. However they reversed that decision after Republicans made claims in 2021 that terrorism suspects were attempting to take advantage of Biden’s porous border to sneak into the United States.
Border Patrol agents cover areas between official border crossings, otherwise known as points of entry.
In October and November, CBP’s Office of Field Operations, which staffs the official ports of entry into the US reported 15 terrorism suspects attempted to gain entry there at southern ports of entry, while 69 were encountered at northern points of entry.
The Times noted that if those trends continue, both will set yearlong records.
Some experts told the outlet that those numbers, which are higher than the Border Patrol’s apprehensions, may include more than one entry for the same person—often someone authorities may have already been watching.
The apprehensions by Border Patrol are more concerning because unlike those made at official points of entry, those caught by Border Patrol are attempting to enter the country undetected.
In October, the Washington Examiner reported the 98 suspected terrorists who had attempted to enter the United States out of 2.3 million people apprehended attempting to illegally enter the country.
“Our adversaries know they can enter our country through our failed border,” said now-former Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), who then was the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee at the time.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), who was the top Republican on the Senate homeland security appropriations subcommittee said Border Patrol agents were “overrun” and the “consequences of these lax enforcement actions should concern every single American.”
A number of those apprehended were citizens of Colombia.
The Examiner reported that the Terrorist Screening Dataset is a government database that lists those persons who are “believed to be or definitively involved with terrorist groups, as well as people affiliated with known or suspected terrorists.”
The State Department specifically lists two Colombian groups—the Segunda Marquetalia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia-Peoples Army, or FARC-EP—as foreign terrorist organizations.
While in the past a majority of those attempting to enter the United States illegally at the southern border were Mexican, there has been a drastic increase in the demographics of those trying to enter the US more recently, including expatriates from Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Last August, the inept director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, testified before the Senate whereby he said there was “no imminent threat from a foreign terrorist organization at the border at the moment,” although he acknowledged that terrorists are exploring vulnerabilities which they might be able to “exploit.”
The FBI is of course more interested in conducting early morning raids on pro-life activists, people who visited the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and otherwise harassing law-abiding Americans who oppose the policies of the Biden administration.
Border Patrol agents are currently overmatched as they are being pulled from the field to conduct administrative duties such as processing and transporting illegals, which prevents them from apprehending illegal aliens at the border who attempt to come into the country illegally.
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