White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sat down with Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday to discuss the government shutdown and the status of negotiation talks. During the interview, Wallace blatantly asked Sanders how she knows terrorists are entering the United States through our southern border.
"Let's talk about the wall, because there is no question that there has been a big spike in the number of family units coming across the border. The president talks about terrorists potentially coming across the border and here is Secretary Homeland Security Nielsen. Take a look," Wallace said, going to a clip of Nielsen.
In the clip Nielsen said Customs and Border Protection has stopped around 300 Special Interest Aliens (SIAs) from coming to the United States through the southern border.
"Those are aliens who the intel community has identified as a concern," Nielsen said in the clip.
"But Special Interest Aliens are just people who come from countries that have ever produced a terrorist, not terrorists themselves and the State Department says, in their own words 'no credible evidence of any terrorist coming across the border from Mexico,'" Wallace said in reaction to Nielsen's comments.
“We know that, roughly, nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegallyand we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is at our southern border,” Sanders responded.
"Wait, wait, wait, " Wallace interrupted. "I know this statistic and wasn't sure if you were going to use it but I studied up on this. Do you know where those 4,000 people come, where they're captured? Airports."
"Not always, but certainly a large number," Sanders said.
"Airports. The State Department says there hasn't been any terrorists that they've found coming across the southern border," Wallace interrupted again.
"It's by air. It's by land. It's by sea," Sanders replied. "It's all of the above. But the one thing that you're forgetting is that the most vulnerable point of entry that we have into this country is our southern border and we have to protect it."
"They're not coming across the southern borders, Sarah. They're coming and being stopped at airports," Wallace refuted.
"They're coming in a number of ways. Certainly, I'm not disagreeing with you that they come through their airports," Sanders replied. "I'm saying by air, by land and by sea. And the more and more that our border becomes vulnerable and the less and less we spend time and money protecting it the more of an influx we're going to have, not just of terrorists, but of human traffickers, drug inflow and people wanting to do American citizens harm."