One of the more disturbing aspects of the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the southern border is the increase in the number of individuals apprehended who are on the FBI’s terror watch list. Seventy-eight individuals on that list have been detained by Border Patrol this fiscal year, an alarming increase over the last five years:
2017 — 2
2018 — 6
2019 — 0
2020 — 3
2021 — 15
2022 — 78
Since individuals on the terror watch list have a special incentive to avoid capture, the number of suspected terrorists attempting to cross — or successfully crossing — the border is likely far higher. Border Patrol agents estimate that the percentage of ordinary “gotaways” (illegal immigrants Border Patrol has directly or indirectly detected evading interdiction) is anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of the number of illegal immigrants apprehended. It’s unlikely the percentage of terrorist gotaways is lower.
After 19 terrorists crashed planes into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, federal officials famously vowed to “Never Forget.” Twenty-one years later, President Biden seems to be saying, “What, me worry?”