Fox's first appearance: More than 1.7 million immigrants are being encountered at the U.S. border and are coming from countries that authorities believe pose a national security threat to the United States, according to a new House report.
The House Judiciary Committee report said the number of “special interest aliens” (SIAs) was obtained from a Congressional staff briefing with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials. SIA are people from countries that the U.S. government has identified as having conditions that promote or protect terrorism, or that may pose some national security threat to the United States.
In 2019, DHS defined a SIA as “a non-U.S. person who potentially poses a national security risk to the United States or its national interests, based on an analysis of their travel patterns.” Often such individuals or groups adopt known or known travel patterns. It has been assessed that there may be links to terrorism. ”
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The report comes from the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). (Anna Rose Leyden/Getty Images)
“DHS's analysis will include examination of travel patterns, origins, and/or travel segments related to the current assessment of the domestic and international threat environment,” the report said.
According to the House report, there are currently 26 special interest countries, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Syria, and Turkey. The agency recently removed 11 countries from its list and added 12 more, including North Korea, China and Venezuela.
The United States has seen particularly high numbers of Chinese and Venezuelan nationals, with approximately 300,000 Venezuelans and more than 73,000 Chinese nationals encountered at the border so far this year.
Border Patrol officials have previously told Fox News they are extremely concerned because there are few ways to vet people entering the country from special interest countries. Unless they have committed a crime in the United States or are on a federal watch list, investigators have no way of knowing their criminal history because their country does not share data with the United States. Authorities have nothing to match their names to when conducting an investigation. fingerprint.
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According to the committee, DHS told the committee that being a national of a special interest country does not affect an immigrant's admission to the United States, but officials have previously said that all immigrants are It emphasized that it was vetted using a multi-layered process that included credentials.
As an example of the risks posed by the release of SIA migrants, the committee pointed to the case of Mohammad Karwin, who was released to the United States despite possible ties to terrorism and subsequently detained by an immigration judge. . DHS found him two weeks later and rearrested him. DHS has since agreed to Mr. Kerwin's voluntary departure from the United States, and he is currently in ICE custody.
“Congress should take seriously efforts to secure our borders and prevent any weakening of America's national security,” the report said.
Texas National Guard soldiers watch over 1,000 migrants cross the Rio Grande from Mexico overnight in Eagle Pass, Texas, December 18, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)
“As the Mohammad Karwin case exemplifies, the Biden-Harris administration is creating chaos at the U.S. border and allowing potential national security and counterintelligence threats to enter the United States, and at least “The case has been released into the country many times.”
According to the report, approximately 98,000 SIAs were encountered in fiscal 2021, which rose to 482,705 in fiscal 2022, 597,058 in fiscal 2023, and 531,768 in fiscal 2024. did. Most of these encounters occurred at the southern border, with 95,705 encounters with aliens of special interest at the southwest border in fiscal year 2021. 465,664 people in 2022. 566,079 people in 2023. So far, in 2024 there will be 504,215 people.
The increase in SIA comes amid ongoing debate about the southern border and how to address it. The Biden administration has noted that the number of contacts has fallen sharply since June, blaming the president's June proclamation limiting the number of asylum seekers entering the United States.
According to these numbers, encounters between ports of entry have decreased by more than 50% and DHS has transferred or repatriated more than 131,000 people to more than 140 countries, including operating more than 400 international repatriation flights.
“During this period, DHS nearly tripled the percentage of noncitizens processed for expedited removal, and the percentage of releases pending immigration court proceedings decreased by nearly half. The total exceeds removals and returns in any fiscal year since 2010,” and the majority of encounters at the Southwest border in the past three fiscal years resulted in removals, returns, or expulsions.” Customs and Border Protection said in a release last month.
It also calls for passage of a bipartisan Senate bill that would increase funding for border authorities, including detention beds, and place limits on immigrant entry into the United States. Conservatives say the bill would codify high levels of illegal immigration.
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Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Arizona border last week and grilled former President Trump over his lack of support for the bipartisan bill. But Republicans note that while the House passed a sweeping border security bill last year, the Senate has not yet passed it.
FOX News' Bill Melgin contributed to this report.
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