On Tuesday, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas could not give a specific number when asked how many foreign terrorists had entered the country illegally amid the surge of illegal aliens from third-world nations.
As the Daily Caller reports, the questioning took place during a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) noted that federal authorities have already issued warnings to Border Patrol agents that foreign terrorists affiliated with such groups as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad could be crossing the southern border by blending in with the larger hordes of illegal aliens.
“Approximately how many illegal aliens in this country or here on asylum have direct ties to Hamas, to Hezbollah, to the Islamic Jihad or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran?” Marshall then asked Mayorkas.
“Senator Marshall, let me assure you that individuals that pose a risk to our national security are our highest enforcement priority, the safety and security of the American public,” Mayorkas responded, not giving a clear answer. When Marshall kept pressing for Mayorkas to give a specific number, Mayorkas simply said that “if detention is indeed warranted by reason of the risk they present, then we indeed detain them.”
“Do you have an answer for my question?” Marshall asked once again. Mayorkas responded by saying that he considered his answer to be sufficient.
Amidst the broader immigration crisis, which has seen millions of illegal aliens flood into the country on Joe Biden’s watch, the more specific threat of Middle Eastern aliens with ties to terror groups taking advantage of the open border has risen in recent weeks, in the aftermath of the massive terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7th. One report suggests that 100 Syrians and 50 Iranians were apprehended at the southern border by Border Patrol in the month of October alone.
A lawsuit has been filed against the Biden DHS by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) alleging that the agency has been deliberately withholding information about the apprehensions of illegals who are on the FBI’s terror watchlist. CIS had made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding this information back in August, but sued after receiving no response from DHS.