http://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2024/05/16/suspected-terrorists-in-the-us-up-over-2000-since-biden-took-office-n2639170#google_vignette
By Sarah Arnold
Townhall
May16, 2024
Since President Joe Biden took office more than four years ago, the United States has become a dangerous place for Americans compared to former President Donald Trump’s term.
With Biden’s southern border remaining wide open, millions of illegal immigrants have poured into the country— with many being criminals and posing safety risks to American communities.
According to recent data released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the number of suspected terrorists who have illegally entered the U.S. is up over 2,500 percent since the Trump Administration.
During the first seven months of the fiscal year 2024, there were 80 Border Patrol encounters of suspected terrorists. In comparison, there were only eleven suspected terrorists apprehended at the southern border during Trump’s term from fiscal years 2017 to 2020.
Border Patrol agents apprehended 367 individuals who appeared on the terrorist watch list between fiscal years 2021 and 2024— all under Biden’s watch.
These numbers do not take into account the more than seven million illegal aliens that have unlawfully entered the United States in less than four years. The southwest border saw more than 269,735 illegal immigrant encounters in September alone.
The Department of Homeland Security claimed this week that the "privacy interests" of illegal immigrants outweigh American citizens' right to know.
"The privacy interests of the individuals in the records you have requested outweigh any minimal public interest in disclosure of the information. Any private interest you may have in that information does not factor into the aforementioned balancing test," the agency wrote in a FOIA request made by Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin.
He clarified that he did not request any personal information that would risk the safety of those illegally residing in the U..S, rather just the nationalities of people arrested on the terror watchlist.
Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) ~ NEW: 6+ months ago, I filed a FOIA request w/ CBP seeking the nationalities of people on the terror watchlist arrested by Border Patrol in recent years. CBP now says they will not turn over that data, citing privacy & law enforcement sensitivity exemptions, telling me:
“The privacy interests of the individuals in the records you have requested outweigh any minimal public interest in disclosure of the information. Any private interest you may have in that information does not factor into the aforementioned balancing test.”
I did not ask for any names, IDs, addresses, anything that would breach privacy, nor did I ask for any law enforcement sensitive information. I simply requested *only* the nationalities of people arrested on the list, so the public can have an understanding of where in the world they are coming from.
CBP acknowledges in the opening paragraph of their response letter to me that all I asked for was nationalities of those arrested on the terror watchlist - but they then go on to cite exemptions that have nothing to do with what I requested, including medical files, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, dates of birth etc, none of which I sought, and they even cite an exemption regarding: “…records which could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.”
I disagree with CBP’s withholding of this data based on exemptions that have nothing to do with my FOIA request, and I will be appealing immediately.
Last month, House Homeland Security Committee Republicans demanded answers from the Biden Administration as to how known terrorists were released into the nation’s interior, citing several instances where they were caught living among Americans.
Republicans have also sounded the alarm on the number of Chinese nationals being apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, with over 200 illegal Chinese immigrants being caught in San Diego in one week alone.
During just the first few months of FY24, 27,583 Chinese nationals crossed the southern border.
Fiscal year 2023 saw over 37,000 Chinese immigrants encountered at the southern border, with over 20,000 more nationals crossing the southern border since October. Since Biden took office, the number of apprehensions of Chinese immigrants attempting to enter the U.S. illegally spiked from being in the single digits to thousands every month.
Republicans have repeatedly accused the Biden Administration of failing to enforce the nation’s immigration law and lying to Congress, as well as the American people, about the U.S. border being “secure.”
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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