At least 42 suspects on the United States terror watchlist have been arrested by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) trying to enter the country illegally across the southern border.
As reported by Fox News, the U.S. Border Patrol and the Office of Field Operations reported that they have “arrested 42 subjects who were on the terror watchlist and attempted to enter the United States illegally” since January 20th, 2021. These individuals were all found in the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), which archives information on all foreign individuals who are “reasonably suspected” of being involved with terrorist organizations and activities.
The reported numbers do not include any suspected terrorists who avoided capture by border authorities altogether. The month of March alone saw over 62,000 illegal aliens evade capture by authorities, thus meaning roughly 2,000 illegals per day.
The information from CBP was released after an inquiry was made into the matter in August by 20 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas). The inquiry called for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to release the full number of illegals who came into the country despite being “included on a list maintained by the Federal Government relating to terrorists or individuals prohibited from boarding a commercial aircraft.”
“Due to the unprecedented nature of this crisis, it is dangerously irresponsible for your Department to not be as transparent as possible with the American people, the states of this union and the localities facing the frontline effects of this crisis,” the lawmakers said in an open letter.
Rodney Scott, former Chief of the Border Patrol, had previously warned about the very real threat of terrorists using the Biden Administration’s open-borders policy to enter the country unnoticed. Scott said that he had seen TSDB suspects coming across the border “at a level we have never seen before,” and that although “we have terrorist threats we can’t get into in this type of a forum,” these threats were “real” nevertheless.
The rise in the apprehension of known terrorists comes amidst the highest confirmed number of encounters with illegals in a single month since Biden first took office: Over 220,000 in March.