Suspected terrorists are streaming across Biden’s broken border

Most people entering the United States illegally are likely just looking for a better life for themselves and their families. But dangerous people on the government’s terrorist watchlist are also taking advantage of President Joe Biden’s open-border policies.

The result is that 268 non-citizens on the terrorist watchlist have been caught by the U.S. Border Patrol since Biden became president nearly three years ago. For Donald Trump’s four years in office, the total was 14.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) tracks these numbers. According to CBP’s table “U.S. Border Patrol TSDS [Terrorist Screening Dataset] Encounters Between Ports of Entry of Non-U.S. Citizens,” there were between two and six encounters each year while Trump was in office, 2017-2020, for a total of 14. That all changed when Biden entered the Oval Office.

There were 16 encounters in fiscal year 2021, 98 in 2022 and 154 so far this year, 2023. That’s 14 in Trump’s four years versus 268 in just three years for Biden.

What happens when Border Patrol agents identify a person on the watchlist trying to enter the country illegally? CBP says, “TSDS watchlisted individuals encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) after entering the country without inspection may be detained and removed, to the extent possible under CBP policy, or turned over to another government agency for subsequent detention or law enforcement action, as appropriate.” Good to know, assuming the CBP follows through with those practices.

But how many people cross the border illegally and never encounter Border Patrol, nor want to? Especially now that Border Patrol officials are having to deal with processing so many people. If a criminal has reason to believe he is on the terrorist watchlist, he would have every incentive to avoid an encounter. Thus, there could be hundreds more on the terrorist watchlist who have entered the country illegally and hooked up with their terrorist support networks. They are not here to make a new life, but to make a new attack.

And that’s why Biden’s open-border policies could ultimately undermine the Democratic Party.

I occasionally hear on the news that an immigrant who entered the country illegally was involved in a shooting or a robbery or a drunken driving incident. It’s terrible news. And people want to know how it happened that an undocumented person got in and was able to commit such a crime.

But what if someone on the terrorist watchlist entered the country illegally and was able to execute a major attack inside the U.S., destroying buildings or killing hundreds of people or both? Were it discovered that that person entered the country during Biden’s open-border policies — policies supported by most progressive Democrats — we would likely see a huge voter backlash in the next election, even if Biden were no longer in office. And rightly so.

Biden has been warned repeatedly that the border situation is extremely dangerous, yet he and his administration keep telling the public everything is under control. Few believe it, which may be why a new ABC News/Washington Post Poll puts Biden’s immigration approval rating at 23 percent.

Democrats — and perhaps their media friends — would surely try to dodge any blame, perhaps saying that the Border Patrol was doing all it could to identify and capture any illegal immigrants with suspected terrorist ties. And that would be true of the CBP. But CBP is simply doing what it has to because of the chaos created by the Biden administration. The agency isn’t responsible for the policies that are drawing millions of people to the border. Biden is.

With the massive increase of encounters, it’s clear that people on the terrorist watchlist see an opportunity and are trying to seize it. If one or a group of those individuals carry out a terrorist attack, the public will demand that heads roll. First the terrorists’ heads — and then, metaphorically, the Democrats’.

Merrill Matthews is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas, Texas. Follow him @MerrillMatthews.