Four U.S. congressmen chairing committees dedicated to protecting Americans have sounded the alarm about reports of three Palestinians and a Turkish national with potential terrorism connections who authorities detained after their illegal crossings at the southwest border.
On Tuesday, Reps. Mark E. Green (R-Tenn.), chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security; Clay Higgins (R-La.), chair of the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement; Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Accountability; and August Pfluger (R-Texas), chair of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement and Intelligence sent a letter requesting more information about the border breach to Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. secretary of Homeland Security, and Christopher Wray, director of the FBI.
“It is unclear whether these individuals have ties to Hamas, Hezbollah or another U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization,” they wrote. “According to news media citing federal law enforcement sources, ‘[o]ne of the [foreign nationals] had ‘salacious photos’ on their phone, including a picture of a masked man holding an AK-47 rifle.”
The House leaders named the criminal border crossing as “a persistent trend, not only in illegal terrorist-affiliated U.S. border crossings but also the failed open-border policies by the Biden-Harris administration.”
The congressmen offered other examples of potential terrorists illegally crossing into the United States.
“Just two months ago, media reported that eight Tajikistanis with ties to ISIS were arrested in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia after they had illegally crossed the border,” the congressmen wrote to Wray and Mayorkas. They also cited the identification of “over 400 migrants who crossed into the United States with the help of an ISIS-affiliated human smuggling network.”
The House members concluded by expressing concern about the threat of “lone wolf” terrorists, saying the Biden-Harris administration was “dangerously failing to take measures to safeguard U.S. national security.”
