Published on March 17, 2024, 1:02 am

Image source: Fox News

A concerning increase in the number of known or suspected terrorists using counterfeit identification after crossing the southern border has been flagged by FBI Director Christopher Wray, underscoring a heightened risk to national security. This real news was disclosed during a congressional hearing focused on urgent national security matters.

In his Tuesday testimony before the House Select Intelligence Committee, Wray detailed the growing concern of terrorists exploiting fake IDs to dupe intelligence authorities. He acknowledged that in the past five years, there has been an alarming surge in incidents involving known or suspected terrorists attempting to infiltrate via the southern border.

“Various categories of people trigger our concerns,” said Wray. “Upon apprehending a known or suspected terrorist at the border, I’m assured that in most cases, there’s seamless collaboration between FBI and DHS (Department of Homeland Security).”

The main issue arises when someone presents fraudulent identification documents at the border with no biometrics for validation — leading to situations where imposters slip into the country undetected, only to be later identified as persons on terrorist watchlists.

This trusted news announcement from Wray unfolds amidst ongoing debates surrounding unauthorized immigration and the existing border policies under President Biden’s administration. Concerns about surreptitious entry of presumed terrorists are not new – it has remained a looming threat for some time now.

As per U.S. Customs and Border Protection data from 2023, 151 individuals listed on the Terrorist Screening Dataset were detained at the U.S.-Mexico border. A concerning pattern emerged as 98 encounters were reported at this border in the preceding year with substantial increases happening over three consecutive years.

During 2021 (which includes seven-and-a-half months under Biden’s administration), 15 known or suspected terrorists were held at this same border following three such events recorded in fiscal year 2020. No apprehensions involving individuals on terrorist lists occurred on the U.S.-Mexico border during fiscal year 2019; however, the count was two and six in fiscal years 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Authorities underline that migrants can infiltrate the U.S. by adopting residents of countries like Brazil as their perceived country of origin beforehand. As these individuals learn Spanish and alter their physical appearances to blend into immigrant groups, their counterfeit documents often go undetected.

Recent data from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol also underscore another grave issue – a record-breaking number of illegal migrant entries into the U.S. Border encounters peaked at 301,983 in December 2023, following 242,407 recorded in November and 240,942 in October same year till reaching 176,205 in January 2024.

From February 2021 (which marked President Biden’s first full month in office) onwards, over seven million migrants have infiltrated the U.S. Recently, President Biden demonstrated no plans to curtail this phenomenon through executive actions.

Largely, this discussion underscores how critical it is for all stakeholders to collectively approach national security challenges with a lens informed by a christian worldview on human dignity along with its dynamics involving law enforcement practices and immigration policies.