This week, the House Oversight Committee held a couple of meetings related to the border crisis and the alarming number of terrorists entering the country. Members condemned the Biden-Harris administration and the policies that endanger Americans – not just the open-door approach to migration but also the alleged coverups that prevent the true numbers of illegals entering the US from being reported.

On Wednesday, September 18, Retired Border Patrol Sector Chief Aaron Heitke of San Diego told the committee that he saw an increase in “special interest migrants” while Biden has been in office. Before 2022, he said there were an average of 10 to 15 people in that group. But by 2022, there were more than 100 – by 2023, there were more than 200. He added:

“These are only the ones we caught at the time. I was told I could not release any information on this increase in (special interest migrants) or mention any of the arrests. The administration was trying to convince the public there was no threat at the border.”

Terrorists Entering the Country

On Thursday, September 19, another hearing was held – this one called “Beyond the Border: Terrorism and Homeland Security Consequences of Illegal Immigration.” Several witnesses testified against the current policies, though one individual claims there is no threat from potential terrorists crossing into the nation.

Dr. Kelly Brown is a 26-year Army combat veteran, UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot, and former advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). She compared the border security system from April 2018 to January 2021, which she claimed had agents, detection technologies, the wall, state cooperation as well as military support, and federal policies designed to remove illegal aliens to when Biden took office. In January 2021, she said, “that system of systems was intentionally dismantled.” She added: “Border Agent focus was intentionally shifted from securing the border and preventing illegal entry to processing illegal aliens as quickly as possible. These actions resulted in the number of known illegal aliens entering the United States surging from 400K in 2020 to 1.6M in 2021 and over 2M in 2022 and 2023.”

Brown also broke down the number of illegal migrants who entered the US this fiscal year from countries that have ties to crime and terrorists: Guatemala (181K), Venezuela (133K), Ecuador (110K), Honduras (101K), and Columbia (100K). “Currently, the State Department has designated Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism,” the doctor explained. “So far this fiscal year, over 14.5K known illegal aliens, equivalent to the entire population of Anguilla, have entered the United States.”

Tim Healy served as director of the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) from 2009 to 2013. The TSC maintains the terrorist watchlist database, which provides information about individuals “reasonably suspected to be involved in terrorism or related activities,” he described.  He spoke about 9/11 and how 19 al-Qaeda terrorists were able to cause such destruction. “Numbers matter,” he said, then mentioned Umar Abdulmutallab, or the “Underwear Bomber,” who tried to detonate explosives on Christmas Day in 2009 aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route from Amsterdam to Detroit. “I witnessed firsthand the potential devastation that even a lone terrorist can cause,” he intoned.

“Numbers matter – whether it’s 19 terrorists or just one, the potential consequences are always devastating,” Healy warned. He then explained how, between 2017 and 2020, 14 people on the terrorist watch list were apprehended by border patrol. “This was alarming, as apprehensions at these locations indicate that known or suspected terrorists are actively trying to evade detection.” Furthermore, the situation has grown even more urgent, he suggested. From 2021 to 2024, under the Biden administration’s watch, 380 aliens who were on the terrorist watchlist were arrested by border patrol, an increase of 2,614%. He ended his testimony with this frightening warning:

“The reality is stark: Our country is facing a form of invasion – one that will persist as long as our enemies believe it will be tolerated. Until we take strong and unwavering steps to halt this, the United States remains dangerously less safe and secure. Knowing all this, it would be nothing short of a shameful travesty if a preventable attack were to strike innocent Americans or target the infrastructure that keeps our nation safe and functioning. The stakes could not be higher, and the need for vigilance, dedication, and immediate action has never been more critical.”

Despite the previous testimonies, Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for Economic and Social Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, says the danger is not as bad as it is being portrayed. Cato produces research on the benefits of immigration and highlights the problems of illegal immigration. “The threat of terrorist entry through the southwest border is minuscule even when compared to the overall low hazard posed by foreign-born terrorism,” he told the committee. “[A]vailable information indicates that foreign-born terrorists who seek to cross the U.S.-Mexico border and commit an attack here pose a very small and manageable threat.”

To prove his point, Nowrasteh explained that his research had identified 230 foreign-born terrorists who either committed, intended to commit, or threatened to commit attacks on US soil. Those individuals were responsible for 3,046 murders and 17,078 injuries from 1975 through the end of 2023. “The annual chance of being murdered in a terrorist attack committed by a foreign-born terrorist during that time is about 1 in 4.5 million per year.” He said. “By comparison, the annual chance of being murdered in a criminal non-terrorist homicide in the United States was about 1 in 13,767 during the same period.” Domestic terrorism, he emphasized, hurt more Americans than any foreign-born terrorists.

The testimony delivered during these hearings is terrifying and underscores the stark divide over border and national security risks. While some experts warn of the rise in migrants with terrorist affiliations in the country, others downplay the severity, claiming the risk is overstated. The numbers don’t lie, though, and they paint a troubling picture.