Earlier this month, Hamas launched the largest coordinated attack against Israel in more than 50 years, leaving over 1,400 dead in its wake. To carry out its heinous attack, Hamas penetrated one of the most secure borders in the world.
Over 6,000 miles away, we, too, face a crisis at our borders. Americans have lived through the crime, fentanyl deaths, and human trafficking that have come with an open border. The atrocities committed by Hamas highlight yet another threat to America posed by our own border crisis: terrorism.
Customs and Border Protection has encountered over 7 million illegal aliens since January 2021 who have poured across President Joe Biden’s open border. This does not include the more than 1.5 million known “gotaways” who evaded the Border Patrol.
At least 172 migrants that Customs and Border Protection has apprehended between ports of entry matched those on the terrorist watchlist during fiscal year 2023. This compares to three in 2020. That’s an increase of over 5,000%.
On Monday, it was reported that at least two Iranian nationals on the watchlist had been apprehended in the first two weeks of October. So concerning is the threat of terrorists entering the United States that the president of Guatemala is highlighting the dangers posed by inaction to secure the border. And yet, the Biden administration has continued to ignore the crisis.
In fact, just two days before the attack on Israel, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas released a statement reaffirming the administration’s opposition to border walls. Since the attack on Israel, there has been no indication of a change in course from the Biden administration.
As the administration has continued down its path of unlimited illegal immigration, the door has been wide open for the terrorists to come in and broaden their operations in the U.S. Charles Marino, former senior law enforcement advisor at DHS, alerted members of Congress that terrorist groups “can and will exploit our open borders with help of the Mexican cartels.” If you thought the border crisis couldn’t get any worse, … it can.
Perhaps the most worrying part of the debate is that there really should not be much of a debate. The need to address this issue is not a new one, and it should not be partisan. The American people have suffered from the historic border crisis. Congress knows how to solve this problem and mitigate threats posed to the homeland—by securing our borders.
The House passed the historic Secure the Border Act earlier this year. The legislation takes steps to ensure terrorists cannot freely enter the United States through our southern border. As the bill directs, to restore our national security, America must resume construction of the border wall, increase the number of Border Patrol agents, prevent asylum fraud, and ramp up interior enforcement to remove illegal aliens who may pose a threat to Americans.
Strong steps must be taken to ensure that those who would do harm to the United States are no longer able to freely enter the country and that those who may already be here are removed. Failure to act to keep Americans safe represents not only a dereliction of duty by those in power but a dereliction of common sense.
The reprehensible attack carried out by Hamas began with an incursion across a border Israelis assumed was secure. As Americans stand with their families, friends, and allies in Israel as the Jewish state responds to the massacre, Americans must question those in power about what is being done to secure our own borders and ensure that anyone who would threaten American lives cannot freely pass into, or remain in, the country.
We know how to do it. Now, more than ever, it is imperative to national security that America secure its borders.
Matthew Kuckelman is a research associate with The Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center. Ian Cruz is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. This first appeared in the Daily Signal.
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