FBI Director Christopher Wray warned Monday that the agency is “very concerned” about human smuggling networks linked to ISIS terrorists who use the southern border to gain entry into the United States.
Wray confirmed the potential threat at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing and said the FBI, along with other federal agencies, is actively investigating human trafficking rings.
“So I want to be a little careful about how far we can go in public session, but there are certain networks, some of the overseas intermediaries in smuggling networks, that have ties to ISIS, and we are very concerned about that. We have worked hard with our partners on this investigation,” the FBI director said in response to a question from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“What exactly that network is doing is still the subject of our current investigation,” he added.
Last August, CNN reported that the station reported that dozens of asylum seekers from Uzbekistan Helped travel to the U.S.-Mexico border By Turkish smugglers with ties to ISIS.
“This is a threat trend that we are very concerned about,” Wray told lawmakers about the incident in response to a question from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
“We are very actively investigating and working with DHS on not only people who have been facilitated to travel overseas, but also members of the facilitation network overseas in some way,” he added. “If you don’t mind, we might have more to talk about in private session.”
Cornyn wonders whether terrorists could be among the 1.8 million “fugitives” — people who entered the United States illegally without being apprehended by Border Patrol agents — under the Biden administration. When asked, Ray suggested that was an obvious possibility.
“The national security implications of border issues are often better reflected in some ways by what we don’t know about the people who sneak in, submit false documents, or otherwise get in. I don’t think we have enough information to connect the dots about the time they arrived,” Ray replied.
In fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30, an estimated 670,000 “fugitives” and about 2.5 million people, roughly the population of Chicago, were apprehended for crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.
Nearly 2.4 million people were apprehended along the border in fiscal year 2022, up from 1.7 million in fiscal year 2021 and setting a new record.
