House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) has said he believes that the threat of attacks within the United States “is higher now than it’s ever been” because President Joe Biden’s open border policies have for nearly three years allowed hundreds of known and potential terrorists to enter the country.
“Let me put it this way, the threat is higher now than it has ever been,” Mr. Green told The Epoch Times in an exclusive interview. His assessment came on the fourth day of Israel’s response to the devastating Hamas terrorist attack that has killed nearly 1,000 Israelis, as well as at least 14 Americans.
The Tennessee Republican pointed to the 250 people on terrorist watch lists who have been apprehended illegally crossing the border between ports of entry and to the likelihood of many more among the more than 1.7 million “got-aways” U.S. border officials have encountered but were unable to detain. He also said he worries that the watch lists aren’t as comprehensive as they have been in the past because of declining U.S. international influence.
Asked whether he thinks the Biden administration is doing what is needed to prevent domestic terrorist attacks similar to those seen in Israel, Mr. Green said: “Of course not. I mean, the border is wide open. If you turn yourself in and you are not on the list, you are going to be released. The list is built as comprehensively as it can be, but we’re out of the Middle East a lot now, so we’re not getting the kind of human intelligence about who is who, and the lists are not as reliable as they were five years ago.”
As a result, Mr. Green said, “This is a major national security risk at our Southern border, and it’s all Joe Biden’s fault, and [Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas.”
But more than 500 such individuals have also entered the United States through ports of entry, according to Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center. Ms. Ries was the DHS chief of staff and served as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims. She also worked at the Department of Justice Board of Immigration Appeals.
“And those are just encounters,” Ms. Ries told The Epoch Times. “We have to remember the most important national security threat is from the 1.7 million got-aways, those who have evaded the Border Patrol under Biden because they didn’t want to be finger-printed, because they were either prior aggravated felons, smuggling drugs, gang members or some combination thereof.”
Shortly after President Biden addressed the nation about U.S. support for Israel against Hamas, national security adviser Jake Sullivan was asked by The Epoch Times during a White House briefing whether the American people should be concerned about known terrorists crossing into the United States.
“We continue to remain vigilant about terrorist threats to the homeland from anywhere. It is something that we are very much working on, that we are consulting with the Congress on, that we are seeking to secure the necessary resources to continue to work through,” Mr. Sullivan said.
“And anytime we see any threat stream involving a terrorist threat to the homeland, we mobilize every asset and resource of the U.S. government to go after that, and that includes information and analysis that we have shared with the Congress about plots emanating from the Middle East, plots emanating from other places,” he said.
The federal government is on “a heightened state of vigilance” concerning domestic terrorism threats because of the situation in Israel, he said, and President Biden “will be convening his national security team this week because it remains a very high priority.”
But Mr. Green told The Epoch Times the Biden White House and DHS have been totally uncooperative with his committee’s efforts to obtain important information and conduct oversight of the administration’s immigration policies.
“They don’t even respond to me. They totally disregard our oversight authority ... They have no regard for Congress, and they have no regard for the judicial branch ... Joe Biden thinks he is king,” Mr. Green said.
Ms. Ries also pointed to the likelihood of dangerous individuals being impossible to locate after they are allowed to enter the United States and given notices requiring them to appear subsequently at an immigration facility.
She said a recent report by the DHS Inspector General uncovered evidence that the government is unable to locate thousands of such individuals because they gave false addresses for their U.S. destinations.
“The notable percentage of missing, invalid, or duplicate addresses on file means DHS may not be able to locate migrants following their release into the United States. As the Department continues to apprehend and release tens of thousands of migrants each month, valid post-release addresses are essential.”
The IG’s investigators reported that illegal immigrants entering the country often share alleged addresses with each other because they are confident they will be released into the United States by border officials.
“Based on our analysis, 80 percent (790,090 of 981,671) of addresses were recorded at least twice during an 18-month period, some of which were provided by families upon release. More than 780 of these addresses were used more than 20 times. We also identified 7 addresses that were recorded more than 500 times, some of which were other federal agency locations and charities,” the IG report states.
Concern among congressional Republicans about these issues is growing.
“Close to 6 million migrants have been let into America as the result of the Biden Administration’s open border policy. They have either been encountered, processed, and dispersed using dubious asylum claims, or illegally entered as known and unknown gotaways,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told The Epoch Times.
“The threat to our national security cannot be overstated, yet President Biden and members of his administration refuse to acknowledge the crisis they have created. We will be dealing with the consequences of this reckless and feckless administration for decades,” he said. Mr. Johnson is the second-ranking Republican member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) told The Epoch Times that recent events in Israel mean “Americans should also be extremely concerned about our own vulnerabilities resulting from President Biden’s open border policies.”
“In 2019, there were zero known encounters with suspected terrorists at the southern border, and this year, there have been 160 and counting,” she said. “As long as the Biden administration allows this unprecedented pattern to escalate, an attack on our own soil isn’t a matter of if—it’s a matter of when. Securing our border and protecting our homeland is absolutely paramount.”
A spokesman for Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) said the North Carolina freshman “believes that border security is national security.”
“The fact that hundreds of individuals from the terror watch list have been caught trying to illegally cross the border is all the evidence we need to reimplement President Trump’s border policies that worked to keep our country safe,” the spokesman said.
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “[The border crisis is] a full-scale INVASION of our country. Everything that is happening at our southern border is a direct result of Joe Biden and Democrats’ disastrous open border policies.”
