Record Number of Foreigners on FBI Terror Watchlist Caught Crossing into U.S. Via Mexico

While the Biden administration and its media allies highlight that illegal immigration has dropped considerably since the termination of a Trump-era restriction, a record number of suspected terrorists have been caught trying to enter the U.S. through Mexico. Not surprisingly, mainstream news reports have focused on the positive effect that the expiration of a COVID-related rule known as Title 42 has had on migration. One story claims encounters between federal agents and illegal aliens have dropped by half since the administration nixed the emergency public health order implemented by Trump to quickly expel migrants from the country. Another celebrates that the measure’s expiration has “brought fewer migrant arrivals than expected” and quotes Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas saying that the number of migrants at the southwest border is “markedly down over what they were prior to the end of Title 42.”

In the meantime, a record number of people who appear on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) terror watchlist have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents this fiscal year. In April alone, the frontline Homeland Security agency caught 16 foreigners who appear on the nation’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) trying to enter the country through the southern border, according to the latest government figures. The TSDB contains thousands of records that are updated daily and shared with federal state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement as well as the intelligence community and international partners to “ensure that individuals with links to terrorism are appropriately screened,” according to the FBI. The April figure is more than the total terrorists caught in four previous years—2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 combined. With more than three months till the end of the fiscal year, Border Patrol agents have already encountered 98 migrants that appear on the TSDB list.

The unprecedented figures have caused incredible alarm in Congress and lawmakers who serve on several committees—including Homeland Security, Counterterrorism, Judiciary and Oversight—have launched investigations. Last month they fired off letters demanding answers from Mayorkas, who was shamefully ousted as a Bill Clinton federal prosecutor after orchestrating the pardon of a big-time southern California drug dealer. The first letter warns the DHS secretary that the House Oversight, Judiciary and Homeland Security committees are investigating how his agency is handling “the elevated national security risk presented by an increasing number of aliens with terrorist ties illegally crossing the southwest border into the United States.” Since Biden began reversing policies deterring illegal border crossings the nation has faced historic levels of illegal immigration and the number of individuals with “derogatory information in terrorist screening databases illegally crossing the southwest border has also skyrocketed,” the lawmakers write. They are seeking documents of those apprehended on the southwest border with terrorist ties to assess the national security risk created by terrorist infiltration and determine if DHS handles the cases correctly.

A few days later, a separate group of legislators demanded information on the arrest of two men—an Afghan and a Pakistani—on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in mid-May. The Afghan national was apprehended near San Diego, California along with a group that had just crossed the border illegally. The Pakistani national was arrested by federal agents in southeastern Arizona one day after the celebrated expiration of Title 42. In a letter to Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray members of the House Homeland Security, Intelligence and Counterterrorism committees demand to know where the individuals are being held, what terrorist groups they are associated with, when DHS and the FBI became aware of their intentions to travel to the U.S., what was their path of travel and what financial support they received. “These reported arrests raise serious questions about the security of our Southwest border and the potential for terrorists to take advantage of the glaring vulnerabilities due to the Biden-Harris administration’s open-border policies,” the letter states, adding that witnesses warned at a recent congressional hearing that the U.S. withdraw from Afghanistan has left a security vacuum in the region that could result in further terrorist encounters at the southern border.