Four individuals allegedly matching identities on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database have been arrested on the U.S.-Mexico border so far during Fiscal Year 2021.
“Three of the people arrested were from Yemen and one was from Serbia,” Axios reported. “The four arrests are more than the number of similar people taken into custody during recent full fiscal years.”
The FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database, commonly referred to as “the watchlist,” was created in the aftermath of the Islamic terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, after the 9/11 Commission Report found that government agencies did not share information about terrorist suspects in an effective and timely manner. DHS begins it’s fiscal year on October 1.
Republican lawmakers visited the U.S.-Mexico border this week amid the crisis that has unfolded under Democrat President Joe Biden, who said on Tuesday that he has no plans to visit the border.
Republican lawmakers made the following relevant remarks about terrorists being apprehended at the southern border [emphasis added]:
- Rep. John Katko (R-NY): “The last thing I’ll tell you is something that very much concerns me as the Homeland Security ranking member, people they’ve caught in the last few days over there in sector three or monument three have been on a terror watch lists. Individuals that they have on the watch list for terrorism are now starting to exploit the Southern border. We need to wake up, we need to understand… And listen, Mr. President Biden, you’re an okay guy. Why don’t you just admit you made a mistake with this policy and go back to the way it was and keep America safe for all of us, and use that money that we’re wasting down here on our American citizens?”
- Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX): “The Biden Administration and his policies have resulted in some winners and losers. The winners are the human traffickers who know that because we don’t have a secure border, that they can move these children. And when we looked in their eyes today, what we saw was children who were being taken advantage of exploited on that 22 day trip. And not only that, but the fact that we have folks who are on the terrorist watch list that are being moved into this country illegally, that are taking advantage of these bad policies that know, because we don’t have a strong, secure border,, that the border wall construction has stopped and been halted about 22 days ago, now they have something to take advantage of. We implore the Biden administration to come visit, to see what their policies have done to these children, what they have done to make our country less secure.”
- Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA): “And I just want to remind you, one of the things that we learned at the border today is that when 120 border patrol officers are taken from the border to a processing center, that leaves our border porous. And what did we learn? That there are drug traffickers and there are individuals on the terror watch list that are coming across our border illegally, from Yemeni, Syria, Iran. They’re coming here and they’re on the terror watch list.”
- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy: “And don’t misconfuse border security with immigration. They’re two separate. Right now, we have a border that is not secure. Right now, we know drugs, we know terrorists, we know what’s happening to unaccompanied children coming across.”
This is a developing news story, refresh the page for updates.