Republicans are demanding answers from Biden officials on how ISIS members successfully got into the United States through the southern border.
In a letter, more than 21 GOP senators are demanding answers from Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after eight ISIS-linked terrorists crossed over the border unvetted. One of the illegal immigrants was released by President Joe Biden’s DHS. They were eventually arrested in Philadelphia and New York City.
The letter, signed by Reps. Mark Green (R-TN), Dan Bishop (R-NC), and Clay Higgins (R-LA) argue the Biden Administration’s reckless policies have weakened the United State’s security vulnerabilities, resulting in danger among American communities. They said that the arrests of the ISIS-linked members prove that Biden’s border crisis is enough evidence that the president is “exploiting our border to possibly carry out an attack on American soil.”
The GOP lawmakers are requesting information on the ISIS-linked illegal immigrants’s arrests and all of the internal communications with the government about the cases.
It is unclear how each of the eight individuals came to reside in the United States, though reports indicate that two crossed the Southwest Border of the United States in the spring of 2023 and one used the CBP One App to schedule an appointment to be screened prior to entry. Unfortunately, the unacceptable security failures that have allowed individuals with terrorist ties to enter the United States through the Southwest Border have become an alarming pattern under this administration. On April 3, 2024, the Committee sent Secretary Mayorkas a letter requesting information regarding two separate incidents of ICE releasing individuals who were on a federal terrorist watchlist, at least one of which was due to errors within ICE’s internal database. The Committee’s requests in that letter remain outstanding. Since that letter, the Committee has learned that Mohammad Kharwin, an individual who is also on a federal terrorist watchlist due to his associations with Afghan-based terrorist organization Hezb-e-Islami, was released from ICE custody into the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program on March 12, 2023. He was initially arrested just two days prior in San Ysidro, California, after having illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the terms of his release, Kharwin was able to apply for work authorization and fly within the United States with no restrictions on his movements, under the sole condition that he was to periodically report to an ICE official over the phone. Nearly a year later, ICE arrested Kharwin in San Antonio, Texas after the FBI provided information that confirmed his membership in Hezb-e-Islami. The Department’s prioritization of catch, process, and release, presents a grave danger to national security. The Committee has repeatedly and forcefully highlighted the security vulnerabilities inherent in the massive influx of illegal aliens at our border, the insufficient vetting of the illegal aliens that the Department releases en masse into the United States, and the unprecedented number of gotaways evading apprehension. The Biden Administration and the Department, however, continue to hide their heads in the sand, ignoring the “blinking red lights everywhere.