Pressure is mounting on the Biden administration to issue a national terror alert

US News

From Jennie Taer

Former Department of Homeland Security officials are criticizing the Biden administration for failing to issue a national terror threat bulletin for more than a year – despite a number of serious potential terror threats from the southern border.

The arrest of eight people from Tajikistan suspected of having links to the terrorist organization ISIS and the inadvertent release of several migrants whose names are on terrorist lists should be enough to alert the public to a terrorist threat, former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials told the Washington Post.

DHS last issued a national terrorism alert to the public regarding domestic extremist violence on May 5, 2023; that alert expired in November 2023.

Former acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan told the Washington Post that the “terrorist threat posed by the current chaos and lawlessness at our border” warrants a new warning to the public.

“DHS had no qualms about issuing a terrorism bulletin in March 2023 warning the country of the threat posed, in part, by potential violence due to individuals’ ‘perceptions of the 2024 general election cycle,'” Morgan said.

“Yet while we are actually arresting terrorists who have crossed our border illegally, and the Director of the FBI and other intelligence agencies are raising the alarm that our open borders pose a threat to our national security, DHS is silent.

“Could it be that there will be a presidential election in five months?”

The federal government has recognized that there is an “elevated” threat level in the United States, and FBI Director Chris Wray has publicly warned about what, how and why these threats might occur.

In April, Wray warned lawmakers of a possible “coordinated attack” in the United States after an ISIS-K attack on a concert hall in Moscow carried out by Tajik citizens killed 145 people and injured hundreds more.

The previous month, Wray had testified before the US Senate Intelligence Committee about concerns about a human smuggling operation on the southern border that had links to terrorist groups affiliated with ISIS.

“Given FBI Director Wray’s recent appearances before Congress warning of the heightened threat level in the United States and far too many recent examples of known or suspected terrorists being discovered in the country, why has a National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) bulletin not been issued?” Charles Marino, former senior law enforcement adviser to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, told the Post.

“Is it that the administration is unwilling to point the finger at itself by admitting in an NTAS bulletin that the chaos it has wreaked at our borders and in the country has undermined our entire homeland security system? The games at DHS must stop. The American people deserve to be protected.”

Since October 2023, border agents have arrested more than 52,000 migrants of “special interest” due to national security concerns, usually related to terrorist ties to their country.

While this number rose as sharply as the number of illegal border crossings in general, the number of migrants apprehended with suspected links to terrorism also increased.

Between fiscal year 2021 and April 2024, Border Patrol agents at the southern border apprehended 362 migrants whose names are on the terror watch list, a massive increase under the Biden administration.

According to federal data, only eleven cases were caught between the 2017 and 2020 fiscal years.

Here are three vulnerabilities highlighted by recent events:

Tajik terror suspects and others released

The group of eight Tajik border crossers were placed under surveillance in the United States after their release and were found to have discussed a bombing plot before being arrested in a joint FBI-ICE operation, sources told The Post.

The group – all now in custody awaiting deportation – had crossed the southern border, and an initial review by federal authorities found no problematic information associated with their names, Fox News reported.

However, it was not the first time that authorities on the southern border arrested and released suspected terrorists.

In January, ICE in Minnesota arrested a confirmed member of Al Shabaab who had crossed the border into California and had been released by Border Patrol nearly a year earlier. At the border, he was incorrectly determined to be a “non-match” on the terrorist list.

In a similar case, the FBI informed ICE Afghan officer Mohammad Kharwin, 48, that he was a suspected member of the terrorist group Hezb-e-islami, nearly a year after border authorities released him in March 2023.

ICE managed to arrest him, but the agency’s lawyers failed to disclose his possible terrorist ties to a judge, who then ordered his release. He was arrested again in April.

Federal border authorities released 35-year-old Colombian national Isnardo Garcia-Amado with a tracking device after he crossed the border in Yuma, Arizona. Three days later, the FBI found Garcia-Amado’s name was on the terrorist list, but it took until the next month for him to be recaptured.

Violations against military bases

In addition, migrants who had entered the United States illegally were arrested while attempting to enter a U.S. military base.

On May 3, two Jordanian citizens, one of whom had illegally crossed the southern border in San Diego, California the previous month, attempted to ram their car into the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia.

When one Jordanian border crosser was examined by the border patrol before his release, the authorities “initially found no derogatory information” associated with his name.

In March, border patrol agents arrested a Chinese national who had entered the United States illegally and attempted to enter the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California.

Members of El Tren De Aragua

Another national security concern is the existence of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which, according to NBC News, has now penetrated major American cities and is currently the subject of more than 100 federal investigations.

In New York City, the gang is said to have ties to moped theft gangs, immigrant squatters and the recent shooting of two police officers and beatings of officers in Times Square.

He is also said to be linked to the murder of a retired Venezuelan police officer who was lured to his death by a group of prostitutes in Miami in April.

The suspected killer of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, Jose Ibarra, and his brother Diego are also said to be members of the gang who were released by federal authorities after illegally crossing the southern border.

DHS did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.