The results of a new report released earlier this week by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee showing that nearly 100 individuals on the terrorist watch list have been released into the United States after crossing the southern border drew outrage from U.S. Reps. French Hill (R-AR) and Mike Turner (R-OH).
“It’s unacceptable that the Biden-Harris administration has left our southern border open and that they don’t know who is coming into our country or where they are once here, including potential terrorists,” the members said in an Aug. 6 joint statement.
Rep. Turner, who is chairman of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Rep. Hill released their statement alongside U.S. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN), citing data from the interim staff report titled, “Terror at Our Door: How the Biden-Harris Administration’s Open-Borders Policies Undermine National Security and Endanger Americans,” which the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement released on Aug. 5.
According to the report, of the more than 250 illegal aliens on the terrorist watch list who were encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol at the southwest border between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released nearly 100 of them, with at least 34 others in DHS custody but not yet removed from the United States.
“We recently sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to look into the process of identifying which terrorist watch list individuals are trying to come into our country and where they are once released,” the congressmen said. “The FBI and DHS have yet to answer these most basic questions.”
Reps. Hill, Turner, and Green sent an April 30 letter to U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro requesting that GAO evaluate U.S. government encounters with individuals on the Terrorist Screening Data Set attempting to enter the United States at and between points of entry.
The letter was sent as a next step in following up on the lawmakers’ prior efforts seeking related information from the FBI and DHS that hasn’t yet materialized.
“Since the Biden-Harris administration’s failed open border policies have welcomed potential terrorists into our nation, we’re working to combat these threats and safeguard Americans in their own backyards,” according to their statement. “The FBI and DHS must answer our requests.”