Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has revealed that agents apprehended 16 terrorists in February who had been caught illegally crossing the U.S. Southern Border.
New CBP data shows that 16 people caught crossing the border were on the FBI’s terror watch list.
According to Fox News, the total number of individuals on the watchlist found to be attempting to enter the country so far this fiscal year is now 69.
CBP expects the trend to continue, however.
This year is already on track to smash last fiscal year’s record 98 encounters with terrorists at the border.
Between FY17 and FY20 there were only 8 of these terror watchlist arrests.
2021 saw just 15.
NEW: CBP data reveals Border Patrol arrested 16 people on the FBI’s terror watchlist who crossed illegally at the southern border in February, bringing total terror watchlist arrests for FY’23 (so far) to 69.
FY’23 is on pace to beat FY’22, which had 98, an all time record.…
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) March 16, 2023
When both the Southern and Northern borders are taken into account, CBP agents have stopped 214 people listed in the Terrorist Screening Database stopped during FY23 to date.
Last year, the total was 380.
The year before that saw only 157 encounters with terrorists.
Last year, the FBI arrested an Iraqi man who was plotting to smuggle ISIS operatives into the U.S. through the southern border in a plan to assassinate George Bush. He also claimed to have just successfully smuggled two Hezbollah fighters into the U.S. https://t.co/vPPdsYOdrS https://t.co/XiDVCMpbIl
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) March 17, 2023
The latest data shows that on the whole, CBP apprehended 128,877 people who crossed the border illegally in January.
Another 128,913 were caught in February.
Those figures are down from December when a record amount of illegal crossings were recorded, as 251,487 illegal immigrants crossed.
December marked the highest monthly total in history.
A total of 17 individuals on the terrorism watchlist were apprehended.
Last week, during testimony before the House, Border Patrol chief Raúl Ortiz contradicted Biden administration officials by stating that there is a full-on crisis on the southern border.
As Slay News reported, Ortiz warned lawmakers that it is not secure, and urged them to finish President Donald Trump’s border wall.
Ortiz noted that there have already been approximately 385,000 known gotaways at the border since fiscal year 2023 began on Oct 1.
That is in addition to 600,000 in FY’22, and 390,000 in FY’21.
There have been approximately 1.4 million gotaways since start of FY’21.
Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz says there have been 385,000 known "gotaways" who escaped past Border Patrol into the country already this fiscal year — and he says that number is likely "between 10% and 20%" higher. pic.twitter.com/2na49tH9di
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 15, 2023
