By Bethany Blankley (The Center Square)
US Border Patrol agents arrested a record 38 people in the FBI’s terrorist screening database during the first three months of fiscal year 2023, according to US Customs and Border Protection. data.
This follows the acquisition of a record 98 agents in fiscal 2022 and 15 in fiscal 2021.
By comparison, 14 were arrested from the 2017-2020 fiscal year under the Trump administration.
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Tom Homan, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told The Center Square, “As of today [President Joe] BIDEN TAKES OFF WE ARE AT APPROXIMATELY 140 KST [known or suspected terrorists] Trying to enter the country illegally. The Border Patrol has arrested 161 people from different countries [some of which] Sponsors of Terrorism.
“There are 1.2 million known and an untold number of unknowns who have gotten away; how many KSTs have successfully entered this country through the southwest border?” he asked. He was referring to at least 1.2 million fugitives in the past 23 months, who entered the US illegally and were intentionally apprehended by law enforcement.
“To say anything is blatant ignorance,” he added. “A lot of systems were put in place after 9-11 to prevent terrorists from getting visas or plane tickets to enter the US. It has successfully stopped thousands of people with defamatory information from entering this country. Why would a terrorist try to get a plane ticket or a visa even though he knows he will be screened?
“It’s so easy to pay the cartels a little extra and let 1.2 million cross the Southwest border and run away in fear because Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed by this man-made Biden border crisis.”
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Since Biden has been in office, more than 5 million apprehensions and walkouts have been reported — the most in a two-year period in US history. Over 3.3 million apprehensions and escapes Reported In fiscal year 2022 – the highest number in one fiscal year in US history. In December, more than 300,000 apprehensions and escapes ReportedThe highest number of any month in US history.
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Thad Cleveland, a former Border Patrol agent and Sheriff of Terrell County, Texas, said he’s worried about those who don’t get caught up in Center Square. He pointed to a bigger problem: “Many others have successfully made it to the United States. It’s not because our Border Patrol agents aren’t doing a good job — the job they do is great — but because the president and his administration “don’t care about our borders.”
Cleveland said from his 26 years of experience with the Border Patrol, the number of crossings reported in the agency’s internal system “falls far short of the actual total. There is no way to look at every crossing point and trail along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico and get a true count.
“Americans should be worried,” he said. “I am worried. I see people crossing the border. I know how many people we arrest and many more escape.
Mark Morgan, former COO and acting commissioner of CBP, said, “Our focus should be on those we don’t capture.”
Agents arresting known or suspected terrorists more often indicates more are coming and entering, he told Center Square, adding, “That’s why we call what’s happening on our southern border a national security crisis.” Border Patrol agents “have been pulled back from their enforcement operations and relegated to administrative duties of processing millions of illegal aliens … handing over control of our border operations to cartels who, in fact, are among the 1.2 million we don’t know. Now call the US home,” he said.
“We could have the next terrorist sleeper cell in the country planning the next attack on U.S. soil and we wouldn’t know,” he said. “Not to mention the unprecedented number of violent criminals planning to take their next American victim.”
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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been securing the border for nearly two years. In March 2021, after House Republicans warned about terrorists coming through the southern border, they Testified“A known or suspected terrorist … [has] tried to cross the border … not only this year, but last year, the year before and so on … and it’s because of our multi-layered security apparatus, the architecture that we’ve built, since the Department of Homeland Security started, that we can actually identify them and arrest them and that they don’t stay in the United States. can be ascertained. … We deny them access based on our intelligence and our vetting procedures, which have grown more sophisticated over the years.
But by the end of the year, Border Patrol agents had was arrested Alleged Saudi terrorist enters Arizona illegally through Mexico. Last July, Richmond, Virginia, police Blocked A terrorist plot by Guatemalan nationals illegally in the US, including one who has been deported twice and another who has an expired visa.
Mayorcas again last July Testified DHS can do “more” to address terrorism threats. Multiple members of Congress have called for Mayorkas to be impeached, and at least 14 attorneys general, led by Florida AG Ashley Moody, have called for his resignation.
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.