According to data from the federal government that was released last week, Border Patrol agents at the Canadian and Mexican border have prevented 127 people who are not citizens listed on the FBI terror watchlist from crossing into in the United States illegally.
The figures released the previous day on Tuesday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed an increase in terror-watchlist arrests between the months of October 2022 to May 2023 was greater than total of 98 arrests in the course of a 12 month period this year, which was the most recent in four years.
The 98 that will be in 2020 and 127 so this year are huge rises from the 0 in the year 2019 which was the year that there was a border crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border was battling an a lesser-scale security crisis and humanitarian.
Border Patrol have arrested more than 170,000 persons in May, who had been illegally entering the country traversing the entry points.
CBP does not provide the names of the nationals or affiliations of immigrants whose names are listed in the list of terror suspects. The FBI database includes known and suspected terrorists, as well as their relatives and associates who are not involved in terrorist activities.
The Washington Examiner received unpublished data in August from the Department of Homeland Security, which revealed how the government identified terrorist-related immigrants internal.
The report revealed that 25 of the 27 terrorists suspected or identified of being terrorists by Border Patrol in the first quarter 2022, were Colombian citizens, not from nations in the Eastern Hemisphere where terrorist groups such as al Qaeda, Islamic State and Islamic State. are based.
Alex Nowrasteh, immigration analyst at the Cato Institute Washington, noted that some Colombians who are on the watchlist could not actually be terrorist threats.
Nowrasteh declared that it’s possible that the Colombians are members of the FARC or the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia. Both groups have been removed from the State Department as Foreign Terrorist Organizations however, the names of those arrested are still listed on the TSDS and they haven’t been removed.
The State Department has listed two Colombian groups which include that is the Segunda Marquetalia (also known as FARC-EP) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Arms (FARC-EP) as foreign terrorist organizations.
The drastic shift in the population of immigrants seeking to be admitted to America via the border with Mexico coincides with a rise in terror-related arrests during the past two years.
CBP records from 2007 show that Mexicans made up 90% of the arrests made in 2007. In the year 2019, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras immigrants made up over 70% of of arrests. CBP figures show that in 2021, immigrants who were not native to Mexico as well as in the Northern Triangle accounted for 1.1 million of 3.4 million arrested. This amounts to 32 percent.
The FBI has found that 337 people who are not citizens have applied for admission to land, air ports as well as sea ports in the United States. This is a greater number than Border Patrol’s number of 127.
On August 20, 2022 FBI Director Christopher Wray stated to that the Senate they were seeking at exploiting every “vulnerability” they can find.
Border Patrol officers were removed from the field to address the huge amount of illegal immigrants who have crossed the border in the past two years. The border has been left open which immigrants have exploited to gain admission to the U.S.