first on fox: More than 1.7 million migrants have faced American border And according to a new House report, come from countries that officials believe pose a national security threat to the United States.
The House Judiciary Committee report said the number of “special interest aliens” (SIAs) came from congressional staff briefings by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials. SIAs are those that have been identified by the US government as coming from countries that promote or protect terrorism or potentially pose some kind of national security threat to the US.
in 2019 dhs defined A SIA “as a non-U.S. individual who, based on analysis of travel patterns, potentially poses a national security risk to the United States or its interests. Often such individuals or groups are known or assessed as traveling “are employing patterns that possibly have a nexus to terrorism.”
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The report is from the House Judiciary Committee, where Representative Jim Jordan is chairman. (Anna Rose Leyden/Getty Images)
“The DHS analysis includes examination of travel patterns, points of origin, and/or travel segments that are linked to the current assessment of the national and international threat environment,” it says.
The House report said there are currently 26 countries of special interest, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Syria and Turkey. The agency recently removed 11 countries from the list and added 12 others, including North Korea, China and Venezuela.
The US in particular has seen many Chinese and Venezuelan nationals arrive, encountering nearly 300,000 Venezuelans and more than 73,000 Chinese nationals at the border so far this fiscal year.
Border Patrol sources have Fox News was first told They are extremely concerned about people coming from countries of special interest, as they have no way to check them. Unless they have committed a crime in the US or are on a federal watch list, agents have no way of knowing their criminal history because their countries do not share data with the US, so when authorities run their names So there is nothing to match their name. fingerprints
DHS told the committee that being a citizen of a country of special interest does not affect a migrant’s admissibility into the US, although officials have previously stressed that screening all migrants is a multi-tiered process. Which includes biographical and biometric information.
As an example of the risks arising from the release of SIA migrants, the Committee pointed to the case Mohammad KharvinHe was released into the US despite possible terrorist ties and was later released on bond by an immigration judge. DHS tracked him down two weeks later and rearrested him. DHS has since agreed to Kharvin’s voluntary departure from the US, and he is currently in ICE custody.
“Congress must take seriously its efforts to secure the border and prevent US national security from being undermined,” the report said.
Texas National Guard soldiers keep watch over more than 1,000 immigrants who crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on December 18, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)
“As the case of Mohammed Kharvin exemplifies, the Biden-Harris administration has unleashed lawlessness at America’s borders and allowed potential national security and counterintelligence threats to enter the United States – and, at least, Kharvin has been issued several times in the country,” it said.
The report found that there were about 98,000 SIA encounters in FY21, which rose to 482,705 in FY22, then 597,058 in FY23 and 531,768 so far in FY24. Of those, the majority were encountered at the southern border, with 95,705 special interest aliens encountered at the southwest border in fiscal year 2021; 465,664 in 2022; 566,079 in 2023; And 504,215 so far in 2024.
The increase in SIA comes amid the ongoing debate over the southern border and how to deal with it. The Biden administration has pointed to a sharp decline in encounters since June, which it attributes to a June presidential proclamation that limited the number of asylum entries into the US.
According to those numbers, encounters between ports of entry have decreased by more than 50%, and DHS has removed or returned more than 131,000 individuals to more than 140 countries, including more than 400 international repatriation flights. Including to operate.
“Over that period, DHS has nearly tripled the percentage of noncitizens processed for expedited removal, and the percentage of releases pending release to immigration court proceedings has nearly halved. Total removals and returns in the past year have nearly tripled since 2010. That’s more removals and returns than in any fiscal year since, Customs and Border Protection said in a release last month, and the majority of encounters at the southwest border resulted in removals, returns or expulsions.
It has also called for passage of a bipartisan Senate bill that would increase funding to border agencies, including for detention beds, and would also impose limits on migrants entering the U.S. Conservatives have said this would increase illegal immigration. Will codify the higher level.
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Vice President Kamala Harris Visited the border in Arizona last week and attacked former President Donald Trump for his lack of support for the bipartisan bill. However, Republicans noted that the House passed a comprehensive border security bill last year, but the Senate has yet to pass it.
Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
