Lawmakers seek insight on suspected southern border terrorists crossing

Three legislators recently forwarded correspondence to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), seeking insight regarding suspected terrorists illegally crossing the southern border.

U.S. Reps. Mark E. Green (R-TN), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, and Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas regarding the matter.

“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on Homeland Security are investigating how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is handling the elevated national security risk presented by an increasing number of aliens with terrorist ties illegally crossing the southwest border into the United States,” the legislators wrote. “Since President Biden took office and began reversing policies deterring illegal border crossings, the United States has faced historic levels of illegal immigration. The number of individuals with derogatory information in terrorist screening databases illegally crossing the southwest border has also skyrocketed.”

The lawmakers noted that the Committees are seeking documents and information, including the alien files (A-files) of those apprehended on the southwest border with terrorist ties, to understand the extent of the national security risk presented by potential terrorist infiltration and to determine whether DHS ensures detention and removal in all such cases.

The lawmakers cited DHS data determining the number of aliens with derogatory information in the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) has risen rapidly in recent years. This far in Fiscal Year 2023, U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) has encountered 96 individuals with derogatory information in the TSDB, in addition to the 98 individuals encountered in Fiscal Year 2022, and 15 encountered in Fiscal Year 2021.