During the daily briefing at the White House Monday afternoon, Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the nearly two dozen suspected terrorists apprehended at the U.S. southern border last year. She downplayed the problem and expressed no concern over the intentions bad actors may have by trying to sneak into the country.
"We have new reporting that at least 23 people apprehended at the southern border in 2021 are on the terror watchlist. Why do you guys think it is that somebody on a terror watchlist would want to get into the United States undetected?" Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked.
"Well, I can't make an assessment of that. But what I can tell you is that your data you're citing here, it means the Border Patrol was doing their job. They apprehended people at the border," Psaki responded.
"So the President is not worried about holes in the southern border being exploited by people trying to come in and kill Americans?" Doocy followed up.
"He’s grateful to the Border Patrol for doing their job and stopping these people and preventing them from getting into the country," she said. "Suspected terrorists attempting to cross the southern border, they're very uncommon. We're talking about a few dozen annual encounters at most, at most."
DOOCY: "Why do you guys think it is that somebody on a terror watchlist want to get into the United States undetected?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 18, 2022
PSAKI: "I can't make an assessment of that...the border patrol was doing their job." pic.twitter.com/31GN2r3Cny
As noted in the exchange, thousands of individuals cross illegally every day and are undetected, making it impossible to know how many suspected terrorists actually came into the country. This fact also makes Psaki's answer about how many suspected terrorists enter the U.S. invalid. Not to mention, individuals don't have to be on a known terror watch list to be terrorists. Thousands of unknown people escaping into the U.S. each day is a major national security threat.
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