DHS chief downplays ‘terrorist’ crossers

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday dismissed the significance of suspected terrorists sneaking into the country via the southern border, saying it was “not a new phenomenon.”

US Customs and Border Protection confirmed Tuesday that four people on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist have been apprehended since October at the USMexico border. Three were from Yemen and one was from Serbia.

Mayorkas told the House Homeland Security Committee that’s nothing new.

“If I may, a known or suspected terrorist — KST is the acronym that we use — individuals who match that profile have tried to cross the border, the land border, have tried to travel by air into the United States not only this year, but last year, the year prior, so on and so forth,” Mayorkas said at a hearing.

“It is because of our multilayered security apparatus — the architecture that we have built since the commencement of the Department of Homeland Security — that we are, in fact, able to identify and apprehend them and ensure that they do not remain in the United States. And so we actually deny them entry based on our intelligence and based on our vetting procedures, which have only grown in sophistication throughout the years.”

He added, speaking over Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), “That is not a new phenomenon.”

Most suspected terrorists stopped by US border security officials are detected at international airports, rather than after illegally crossing the border.

According to a fact sheet from the Department of Homeland Security, there were 3,755 known or suspected terrorists stopped at the US border or at airports in fiscal 2017. In fiscal 2018, six terror suspects from Yemen and Bangladesh were reportedly detained at the southern border.

Mayorkas confirmed that suspected terrorists do not have a right to illegally cross the border to claim asylum.