Tipsheet

The Arrest of Iranian National Highlights Disturbing Reality of Biden's Border Crisis

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  February 02, 2023 1:30 PM

Yesterday, Spencer covered a development at the US/Mexico border, in which American officials captured an Iranian national who'd crossed the border unlawfully.  This is an alarming incident for multiple, obvious reasons -- not the least of which is that it is clearly known around the world than an effective way to attempt to enter this country illegally is through our porous southern boundary.  Over the course of the Biden-era border crisis, illegal immigrants from more than 150 different countries have been encountered by US authorities, underscoring the fundamental unserious of Vice President Harris' (apparently stalled) "root causes" initiative.  

In case you missed it, here's the latest disturbing update:

Texas law enforcement arrested an Iranian illegal immigrant at the southern border last week whose name and date of birth were initially flagged as a match on the FBI’s terror watchlist, but who a DHS official tells Fox News was ultimately determined not to be a match on the database after further vetting. Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) arrested 29-year-old Alireza Heidari last week after a traffic stop involving a human smuggler at the border in Val Verde County, Texas as part of Operation Lone Star. Heidari was being smuggled in the vehicle along with four other illegal immigrants. He was located in the trunk. Fox is told that Heidari was handed over to Border Patrol custody and later determined to be a match of the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). 

That full Fox News exclusive is available here.  Note well that it was Texas state authorities, not border patrol, that nabbed this guy, along with several others. It was reported at first that Heidari was on a US terrorism watchlist, before additional vetting determined that was not the case.  After the initial news broke, apologists of Biden's border crisis performed their usual, embarrassing spin that this constituted evidence that the border is, in fact, secure.  See?  We caught this terrorist! Thanks, Joe!  Once we learned that the illegal immigrant in question wasn't on the list, some of the same types of people pivoted to further downplaying the incident.  But this is the pitiful spin they're forced into regurgitating on the regular, even as confirmed terrorism watch list apprehensions explode.  A critical reminder:

Citing these numbers as a "success" -- because the potential terrorists were caught, thus the system is working -- should instantly discredit anyone who attempts the argument.  Why?  

Well over 300,000 known 'got-aways,' just one-third of the way through the current fiscal year. The overall, shocking numbers in this category, already surpassing 1.2 million on Biden's watch, just keeps rising.  These are unprecedented, disastrous numbers.  Even a young child could grasp the problem: If we are stopping some cartel and gang members, convicted violent felons, and suspected terrorists at the border, untold others are successfully entering our country within the waves of thousands of daily 'got-aways' -- that we know of.  Especially because dangerous people have extra incentive to try to evade capture.  Experts say the administration's new 'mass parole' policies for illegal migrants from a handful of countries will likely reduce the official encounter numbers, but will further fuel 'got-aways', with fewer illegal migrants opting to deliberately get caught, processed, and released into the US.  Meanwhile, border agents continue to protest the manner in which they're being prevented from doing their jobs effectively:

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This appears to be an echo of the pro-criminal, anti-police-chase directives being implemented in high-crime, blue jurisdictions around the country.  I'll leave you with this, via Julio, which is just beyond parody, and puts an additional ludicrous spin on the administration's most pathetic talking point:

The White House claims that noticing and accurately describing the border crisis is causing the crisis.  House Democrats are now contributing to the discourse by adding that being concerned about this historic crisis is also a racist, extreme conspiracy theory that demonizes migrants -- and also isn't Biden's fault.  These are unserious people with no interest in serious solutions.  Are they incoherent hypocrites, too?  Yes, they are.