A new report has revealed that 99 illegal immigrants on the terrorist watch list have been released into the United States during the first three years of Joe Biden’s administration.
During that period, Border Patrol has encountered up to 250 individuals, including those from places with an active terrorist presence such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Pakistan, Turkey, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Mauritania and Yemen.
The report, released by the House Judiciary Committee, found that tens of thousands of nationals of countries that could pose national security risks had been identified, including 2,134 Afghans, 33,347 Chinese, 541 Iranians, 520 Syrians and 3,104 Uzbeks.
The report cited information provided to committee staff by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in June.
Migrants, mostly from Central America and Venezuela, rest on their way to the United States to escape poverty and violence on the outskirts of Huixtla, Chiapas state, Mexico, July 24.
“That does not include the untold number of potential terrorists who evaded Border Patrol to enter the United States as part of nearly 2 million ‘escapes’ since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration,” the report continued.
In June, eight Tajik nationals with possible ties to ISIS were arrested in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles in a coordinated law enforcement operation.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force began monitoring the eight as part of an investigation into “a potential terrorist threat originating in Central Europe.”
Three of them had entered the U.S. after booking asylum appointments on the CBP One phone app, three had been encountered by Border Patrol while crossing the border, and another arrived without scheduling an asylum appointment.
Republicans have issued stark warnings about the potential threat of an overwhelmed border that cannot keep out would-be terrorists. Biden has insisted that an act of Congress would be needed to secure the country’s border.
Migrants crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico pass by large buoys being deployed as a border barrier
In fiscal year 2024, through June, the United States recorded 1.8 million crossings. The numbers dropped to 130,000 in June from a record 301,000 in December.
Conservatives insist he has the executive power to do so and allowed a bipartisan immigration bill to die earlier this year over fears it did not go far enough.
Also in June, it was revealed that U.S. agents are working to detain more than 400 migrants who were smuggled into the United States across the border by an ISIS-affiliated human trafficking network from Central Asia and who are considered “subjects of concern.”
The migrants crossed the southern border and, although they were screened by U.S. Border Patrol upon entry, they could not be detained at the time because they were not on the government’s terrorist watch list, according to NBC News.
By the time the news broke, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had already arrested 150 of the 400 migrants.
However, the location of 50 of them was completely unknown to the US authorities.
The more than 400 migrants are believed to have come from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Russia.
These nations have well-established connections to ISIS and its offshoot, ISIS-K.