House Republicans demand probe of hundreds of terror watchlist migrants entering US
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Three House Republicans have demanded a federal investigation into reports that hundreds migrants on the terror watch list had entered the US. They also want to know the location of the new arrivals.
The Post exclusively obtained a letter from The Post on Tuesday, in which members of The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HSCI) and the House Homeland Security Committee requested that the Government Accountability Office identify those migrants who attempt to enter the US at or between ports of entry and those who already have been released.
Intel Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio and Intel member French Hill, R-Ark. Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., told GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro that he should open an investigation when the FBI and other agencies of intelligence failed to give answers.
The letter asks how many suspected terrorists, their family members or associates, were found at the border with Mexico and allowed to enter the US.
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The letter also asks for information about the procedures and policies that the FBI and US Customs and Border Protection use to flag immigrants on the terror watchlist and if the bureau monitors them once they enter the country.
The Republicans also requested that the report include an evaluation of the CBP and FBI actions described above under the existing authority.
They added: “For any shortfalls identified in these authorities, we request that you further develop and recommend possible legal remedies aimed at mitigating resulting risks to national security.”
According to CBP enforcement stats, in fiscal year 2023 federal authorities met 169 individuals on the terror watch list between ports of entrance and 80 at southern border ports of entries.
Since Oct. 1, nearly 100 flags have been placed at and between the ports of entry on the southern border.
In the two fiscal years, another 630 terror suspects have been encountered at the Northern border.
Hill said that these numbers are only for those known suspects, who entered the country or were removed later, during a threat assessment hearing in March. He added that he, along with other lawmakers, still didn’t know the status of 169 people encountered at the southern border.
He said that a total of 7,000,000 encounters at the US-Mexico Border since Biden’s election left him with no idea how many people had crossed the border.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed this year that a Somalian national, who was a terrorist group al Shabaab member was allowed into the country in March 2023 after being first arrested in California.
The Terrorist Screening Center first deemed him as a “mismatch,” despite his connection to the use of explosives, firearms or their manufacture and transportation. It took them a year before they realized their mistake and arrested him again.
Hill drew the attention of the case, saying that the terror suspect was “not really apprehended until he tried to get a work using his real identity documents,” citing testimony in January from ICE director Patrick Lechleitner.
The Arkansas Republican questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray at the threat hearing if FBI field offices were notified nationwide of terror suspects or other people placed on no-fly list.
Wray stated, “The system is set up so that they should be.” I can’t say that this has happened in all cases.
Wray said that “fake” documents are the biggest concern, as they leave authorities without “biometrics fingerprints or other to match against”.
Hill noted that Border Patrol processed 6,00 people in one day at the southern border, with “no paperwork process,” during a trip he took to Eagle Pass, Texas, when he was accompanied by dozens of members of Congress.
He said: “No biometrics or photo, interview or run against a list. No checking of documents.” “They just sent them into the US.”
The Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines promised to give the information.
After their initial arrests, other terror suspects were deported, including a member of Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist group, who confessed to Border Patrol agents at El Paso in Texas that he planned to travel to New York, and was “trying to make a bomb.”