President’s ‘terrorists’ exist only as a statistic
WASHINGTON — For some time now, President Trump has been encouraging people to think of Mexico as a portal for international terrorists who “pour” into the U.S. Except, he says, for 10 who were recently caught by the U.S.: “These are very serious people.”
These 10 do not exist, except as a federal statistic that Trump and his vice president put through a rhetorical grinder in service of describing emigrants from Mexico as a menace.
There is, in fact, genuine concern about the potential for Islamic extremists to make their way across the border into the U.S. But that concern applies more to the Canadian border, where Trump is not planning to put up a wall.
The myth of the “very serious” 10 developed over the months, culminating this week in Trump’s assertion that “we caught 10 terrorists.”
In July 2017, a State Department report on terrorism comes out, breaking down perceived threats by country, and it does not fit into Trump’s story about danger from the south.
It says: “There are no known international terrorist organizations operating in Mexico, no evidence that any terrorist group has targeted U.S. citizens in Mexican territory, and no credible information that any member of a terrorist group has traveled through Mexico to gain access to the United States.”
That report dwells much more on the northern neighbor, home to “Canada-based violent extremists inspired by terrorist groups such as ISIS and al Qaeda and their affiliates and adherents.”
In January, a joint report by the Homeland Security and Justice departments states that Homeland Security had 2,554 “encounters” worldwide with people on a terrorist watch list who were trying to travel to the U.S. That breaks down to an average of seven per day, and is the seed of what becomes Trump’s claim about the “very serious” 10.
In June, the average of seven per day grows to 10.
“On average, my department now blocks 10 known or suspected terrorists a day from traveling to or attempting to enter the United States,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.