Biden's border crisis a result of his terrible policy choices: Ron Vitiello
Former Acting ICE Director Ron Vitiello reacts to new border data contradicting Biden's claim that illegal crossings are dropping on 'Fox News Live.'
Joe Biden has left America’s southern border wide open, and everyone knows it. It’s not just common criminals breaking our immigration laws, or coyotes sneaking people across, or cartels smuggling in deadly drugs. Although that’s bad enough. Everyone—including those wishing America the greatest harm—knows the door is open.
So far this year, the Border Patrol has encountered 146 known foreign terrorists attempting to cross the southern border—a nearly 50 percent increase compared to last year’s 98 encounters. And that’s just the ones we caught—no one knows how many made it through. While terrorists have long tried to cross our border, they have never done so in such great numbers. During the previous administration, an average of only three foreign terrorists attempted to cross our southern border illegally each year.
The Biden administration wants Americans to believe that racism, or COVID-19, or the Second Amendment is the greatest threat to America. The reality is that his open border is the gravest terrorist threat to the homeland in years. Remember, it only took 19 Al Qaeda operatives to kill 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001. Many, many times that number have almost assuredly crossed our southern border since Joe Biden took office.
Last year, an Iraqi man affiliated with ISIS tried to smuggle in four other terrorists across the southern border to assassinate former President George W. Bush. His plans were well underway, having already surveilled President Bush’s home to plan the attack, before unwittingly telling a law enforcement source his plans, resulting in his arrest.
Just last week, even CNN reported that the Border Patrol apprehended more than a dozen Uzbekistan nationals with ties to ISIS, only to release them into the United States on "parole." The government reportedly can’t find these suspected terrorists.
Unfortunately, terrorists arriving at our border may find partners among the more than 70,000 Afghan evacuees that Secretary Mayorkas rushed into the country during President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. He abused an immigration loophole known as "humanitarian parole" to allow them in with no legal status and with our government having little if any information about them.
FBI TERROR WATCHLIST ARRESTS, ENCOUNTERS AT SOUTHERN BORDER FOR FY 23 HITS ALL-TIME RECORD
Numerous government reports have now proven that the evacuees were not fully vetted, despite promises to the contrary from the Biden administration. Scores of Afghan evacuees—according to one whistleblower, more than 320—are on terrorist watch lists. Many have since disappeared into American communities.
It’s not just terrorists, either. The Border Patrol encountered 50,000 Russians and 40,000 Chinese nationals attempting to illegally cross the southern border this year. Some are doubtless coming for jobs and better opportunities, but only a fool would believe that our enemies aren’t sending loyalists among the throngs crossing our border.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION
Again, these numbers only account for the border crossers we know about. According to DHS, there were an estimated 150,000 "gotaways" in 2019. By 2022, that number had more than quadrupled to over 600,000. How many of those 600,000 individuals are terrorists, criminals, cartel members, spies, or foreign saboteurs? Your guess is as good as the government’s.
With America’s border wide open, the threats of terrorist attacks, espionage, and subversion on American soil are as great as they were preventable.
Should he choose, the president could declare a national emergency, reinstitute the Trump administration’s Remain in Mexico policy, crack down on asylum fraudsters, and immediately deport those whose first act on American soil was to break our laws. These steps would alleviate the pressure on our ports of entry. In the meantime, the U.S. military could help defend the open stretches of our border that our enemies are crossing.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The administration could ensure that any cartel that assists terrorists in entering our country would share their fate. The president could also direct federal law enforcement to end their partisan crusades against their fellow Americans and instead hunt down the foreign enemies inside our borders.
But I fear President Biden will take none of these actions to secure our homeland. He certainly hasn’t so far.