US Border Patrol reports surge in ‘terrorist’ encounters
US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) apprehended 98 illegal immigrants at the country's southern border with names matching those on the Terror Screening Dataset, a government watchlist of individuals believed to be involved with terrorist groups or affiliated with known or suspected terrorists, according to agency data published earlier this week.
While this figure represents just .0044% of the record 2.4 million people who illegally entered the US in 2022, it is a massive increase from last year, when just 15 people arriving through Mexico were found to be on the list. The numbers have grown exponentially since 2019, when none of the migrants apprehended at the southern border were on the list at all.
CBP data obtained by the Daily Caller earlier this month revealed an increase of nearly 600% in the number of migrants flagged this year as “special interest,” meaning they had a history of traveling through areas the US Department of Homeland Security has deemed national security concerns for reasons of terrorism or other unspecified “nefarious activity.” The majority of those were encountered at the Mexican border.
‘Special interest’ migrants are usually released into the country like any others unless CBP can find negative information about them, former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott told the outlet.
The number of “criminal non-citizens” nabbed by CBP has also exploded in recent years, with over 12,000 arrested in 2022. The figure more than quadrupled between 2020 and 2021, coinciding with the Biden administration's shift toward a more permissive border policy.
Vice President Kamala Harris last month attempted to reassure Americans concerned about the increasing porousness of the nation’s borders, insisting “the border is secure” even as she acknowledged the immigration system was “broken” and needed to be “fixed.”
The flood of migrants entering the US via the Mexican border has overwhelmed local resources to such a degree that Texas Governor Greg Abbott began shipping buses full of illegals to New York City and Washington DC in an effort to confront the country’s Democrat leadership with the results of their immigration policies. The Biden administration has hit back, accusing Abbott of “playing politics with human beings.”
