Mary Rose Corkery
The former director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Wednesday he’s afraid the border’s vulnerability allows suspected terrorists to cross the border.
“The border is vulnerable,” Tom Homan, former acting director of ICE, told Fox News hosts Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer, speaking about reports two men on terrorism watchlists crossed the border in 2021.
“How many got through that we didn’t catch? That’s what scares me,” Homan said.
Two Yemini men were apprehended after they crossed the border illegally in January and March, Customs and Border Protection (CPB) announced Monday. Agents learned after the two men crossed the border that they were part of the FBI’s terrorism watchlist.
CPB’s press release regarding the apprehensions of the two men shows up as “access denied,” according to multiple reports. A CPB spokesperson said Tuesday the statement “was not properly reviewed” before publication.
“The news release in question was not properly reviewed and contained certain disclosure and policy information related to national security that required CBP to remove it from our website,” the spokesperson said.
Check out our ‘Cancel Corner‘, a section we launched in February, where we report on the latest Cancel Cases and stories from around the globe.
CPB encountered 78,442 people in January at the southwest border and that number rose to 100,441 in February, according to the agency’s data. The numbers consist of accompanied minors, single adults, family units and unaccompanied alien children and single minors.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said southwest border apprehensions are set to reach a 20-year-record high, according to a March 16 DHS statement. The DHS Secretary said the majority of single adults and families are being turned away from the border in accordance to Title 42, but unaccompanied migrant children aren’t.
The former ICE director said terrorists like to use disorder and changing presidential administrations as opportunities.
“That’s what makes this humanitarian crisis a national security crisis,” Homan said.
Homan cited CPB’s statistic that “40% of their manpower” isn’t guarding the border anymore. The former ICE director said database checks make it nearly impossible for someone, who intends to cause damage in the U.S., to purchase an airplane ticket and to obtain a VISA.
Homan said the border is vulnerable to those who wish to come to the U.S. to cause damage.
“There’s over 1,000 got-aways every day, Border Patrol says over 1,000 got-aways based on central traffic. They can’t respond to a drone traffic or camera traffic, over 1,000 got-aways,” Homan said. “So if you want to come to this country to do us harm the border is vulnerable right now because of the situation created by the Biden administration.”
Check out our ‘Cancel Corner‘, a section we launched in February, where we report on the latest Cancel Cases and stories from around the globe.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.