Recently, an Afghan national living in Oklahoma City, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, was arrested for conspiring to commit a terrorist attack on American soil on Election Day.

Thankfully, his plans were thwarted by federal law enforcement — but if this ISIS-inspired terrorist plot doesn’t raise red flags about all the immigrants welcomed into our country under the Biden-Harris administration who pose threats to our national security, I don’t know what will.

This raises concern and more questions than there are answers to at this time. How many other foreign nationals within our borders (who have come either legally or illegally) hold malevolent plans and hatred toward America?

Despite previous claims from the federal government, Tawhedi was not vetted by the State Department for a Special Immigrant Visa. Instead, he was reportedly on humanitarian parole under the Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Allies Welcome program to resettle Afghans following the Biden-Harris administration’s catastrophic withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region in August 2021.

This plot that we barely dodged is a prime example of why proper vetting matters. If people are slipping through without sufficient background checks and continued and thorough vetting, it’s no wonder terrorists see the Biden-Harris administration’s open-borders policy as an open invitation to carry out violence on a country they are radicalized to hate.

Every State a Border State

The Biden-Harris “come on in, everyone” policy for immigration and resettlement is like putting up a sign that says, “Please Trespass and Loiter.” This administration’s intentionally lax approach turns every state into a border state; while actual border states have trained personnel and federal agents to identify migrants who pose a threat to national security, inland states typically do not. This policy essentially requires the first responders in the average sheriff’s office in all parts of the country to become experts in counterterrorism operations — from Annapolis, Maryland, to Billings, Montana.

To add insult to injury, as the Biden-Harris administration is resettling foreign nationals with terrorist ties at taxpayer expense, it’s also ushering in another wave of individuals — some of whom are on the terrorist watch list.

There has been a drastic increase of this over the last three and a half years. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has apprehended 102 non-citizens on the Terrorist Screening Data Set between ports of entry in fiscal year 2024, based on a Sept.16 update. These are the ones who were caught, but this is likely just a fraction of those surging through the border undetected.

In fiscal years 2023, 2022, and 2021, there were 172, 98, and 16 apprehensions of non-citizens on the terror watch list, respectively, breaking through between ports of entry. This is compared to just three apprehensions of individuals on the terror watch list in FY2020, three in 2019, six in 2018, and two in 2017 (i.e., the Trump administration). The increase in dangerous individuals at the border from the last administration to this one is glaring.

The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the horror of domestic terrorism are forever seared into our national psyche. As a nation, we must be ever vigilant to ensure this never happens again on U.S. soil. That’s why the toxic recipe of open borders and lax resettlement vetting is disturbing. The fact that we have no idea who is in our country should terrify us and cause us to act.

Putting Teeth to It

Conservatives have rightfully been sounding the alarm on this for the past four years, to no avail. Congress must put the brakes on this illegal express train to the U.S. and make sure all immigrants are properly vetted — or that the border and resettlement programs are shut down altogether. Such vetting involves coordination and vigilance between the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, CIA, and other agencies.

The government’s primary role is to protect its citizenry, and in the words of the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, to “provide for the common defence.”

Sovereign nations must have secure borders and adequate safeguards to ensure radicalized foreign nationals motivated by terrorism aren’t allowed to live freely within our boundaries.

Right now, Congress is pushing for tighter oversight and transparency, but elected officials need to increase the squeeze by withholding funding and calling for executive resignations unless significant change occurs.

It is up to Americans to give Republicans and Democrats no rest and push them to take national security seriously. I pray they will wake up to this threat — before it’s too late.

When we’re dealing with terrorists living among us, it’s life or death. This election should light a fire under Congress and the next administration not only to address the gaps in our immigration policies, but also to ramp up efforts to find and neutralize any threats that have already slipped through the cracks. American lives, after all, are at stake.

Jonathan Alexandre, Esq., is vice president of governmental affairs and senior counsel for Liberty Counsel and Liberty Counsel Action. He consults with and advises state and federal legislators and policy groups in government relations. He also serves as general counsel for the Frederick Douglass Foundation.