Vicky Arias, FISM News
A new Customs and Border Protection (CBP) report reveals that border patrol agents have encountered a staggering number of individuals who are on the nation’s terrorist watchlist.
In the seven months of fiscal year 2023, there have been 98 encounters with individuals identified on the terrorist watchlist between ports of entry at our country’s borders. It took the entirety of fiscal year 2022 to reach that same number of 98.
During the whole four years of the Trump administration, individuals encountered on the terror watchlist between ports of entry totaled 14. CBP data shows that border patrol encountered only two individuals on the terrorist watchlist in 2017, six in 2018, three in 2019, and three in 2020.
However, in 2021, that number more than quadrupled, from 3 to 16.
Encounters with known potential terrorists or those associated with terrorists are traditionally quite rare, but since President Joe Biden took office in 2021, they have been on the rise.
According to CBP, “encounters of watchlisted individuals at our borders are very uncommon, underscoring the critical work CBP agents and officers carry out every day on the frontlines.”
On Sunday, Fox News correspondent, Bill Melugin, reported that “per multiple CBP sources, border patrol agents in [the] San Diego sector arrested an Afghan national on the FBI’s terror watchlist after he crossed illegally [with a] group of migrants near Otay Mesa, [Calif.] on Wednesday.”
In response to Melugin’s report, Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy asked who else may be getting through.
“Another terror suspect made it across our border illegally,” McCarthy stated. “Who are they NOT catching?”
Another terror suspect made it across our border illegally.
Who are they NOT catching? https://t.co/ZWKTYCXSHI
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) May 14, 2023
In addition to the skyrocketing data on terror watchlist encounters, the deadly drug, fentanyl, continues to pour across the nation’s border.
According to CBP data, fentanyl seizures so far for fiscal year 2023 have surpassed the entire seizure amount for the whole of 2022. So far this year, 17,200 pounds of the poisonous drug have been seized, compared to 14,700 pounds last year.
Sen. Ted Cruz today stated that “Joe Biden becoming president was, without exaggeration, the best thing that has ever happened to the Mexican drug cartels.”
“Last year … we had over 100,000 Americans die of drug overdoses, two-thirds of which was Chinese fentanyl flooding across our southern border,” Cruz continued. “That is a tragedy and it’s a direct political decision … in favor of Biden’s open border policies.”