First appearance on FOXHomeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is facing intense scrutiny from Congress over the Biden administration's refusal to hand over the citizenship of people on the FBI terrorism watch list who are apprehended at the border by the Border Patrol.
“The real reason for your illegal suppression of information about the national origins of terrorism suspects may not be privacy or security concerns, but partisan fears of intimidating the American people,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, wrote in a letter to Mayorkas. “Yet again, you are attempting to hide evidence of the Biden-Harris Administration's border crisis.”
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sent a letter to Fox News last week again denying a request for information on the nationalities of suspects on the FBI terrorism watch list apprehended by Border Patrol between ports of entry on the southern border.
Biden-Harris Administration Refuses to Reveal Nationality of Terror Watch List Migrants Apprehended at Border
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is interviewed by Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein during a Washington Economic Club event at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Washington, D.C., on May 17, 2024. The Biden administration plans to speed up the vetting process to reduce the time migrants wait while their asylum claims are processed, as part of its latest effort to curb illegal border crossings ahead of the November election. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Now called the “Terrorist Screening Dataset,” the watch list includes known or suspected terrorists as well as others believed to pose a potential threat to the United States, including associates of individuals on the watch list.
The request, which asked only for the nationalities of those encountered and no further information, was denied. Fox made the request in October and it was initially denied in May, citing privacy and security concerns, reasons the network further emphasized last week.
“[Customs and Border Protection (CBP)] “We strive to protect the identity of individuals and to avoid divulging, directly or indirectly, information about any individual,” the agency said in a letter to Fox. “Publicizing data about a particular nationality, or data about multiple nationalities, that reflects a small number of individuals may lead to the identification of individuals, particularly by organizations familiar with those individuals.”
The agency also argued that the release of the information would shed light on investigative methods used to track down and arrest terrorists.
Biden administration refuses to reveal nationalities on terror watch list as illegal immigration surges under his administration
Sen. Tom Cotton has slammed Kamala Harris for not being clear about changing policy positions from 2020. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“Providing this information could threaten national security by allowing targets to alter their behavior to avoid detection and exploit gaps in CBP's law enforcement intelligence. Additionally, providing the requested information could shed light on terrorists' geographic travel trends and signal to terrorists that the government is aware of their travel plans, potentially enabling them to take countermeasures against agents and their investigations,” the report states.
The agency argued that disclosing nationality could allow bad actors to “implement countermeasures to circumvent CBP's law enforcement activities and exploit vulnerabilities in CBP's law enforcement operations.”
But Cotton wasn't convinced by the reasons given.
“Of course, if the Biden-Harris administration enforces the law fairly and deports illegal immigrants regardless of where they come from, terrorists will not be able to game the system in the ways you describe.”
He later said, “The American people have a right to know who is crossing our borders, especially when illegal immigration has ties to terrorism.”
For more coverage on the border security crisis, click here
“And that right, contrary to your bizarre assertion, 'far outweighs' the right to privacy of an illegal immigrant suspected of terrorism,” he said. “I honestly can't believe I even have to write this sentence.”
The letter asks for the information to be provided by September 10th.
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there were 172 encounters Last fiscal year, there were more than 100 border detentions between ports of entry of nationals on the terrorism watch list, and more than 560 detentions at ports of entry.
Fox News' Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
