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The world first learned of the power of ISIS, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, in 2014, when it beheaded an American and began a genocide against Christians and Yazidis in Iraq. Currently, the terrorist group’s descendant, ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), is expanding and strengthening its ability to kill innocent civilians around the world.
In the face of this danger, the U.S. government should work day and night to protect national security. Rather, President Biden’s illegal immigration policies have given ISIS-K clear access to the mainland, increasing the threat of terrorist attacks against the U.S. mainland. Take recent reports of ISIS-K affiliates crossing the southern border.
In February 2022, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) arrested an Uzbek illegal immigrant named Jovokir Atoyev. CBP then followed Mr. Biden’s protocol and released Mr. Atoef, a single military-age man who had traveled thousands of miles to multiple countries, back into the country.
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But in May last year, the Uzbek government issued a worldwide notice stating that Mr. Atoyev was wanted for ties to ISIS-K. The Biden administration only tracked him last month, meaning he has been flying under the radar in the United States for two years.
Latin American migrants join a caravan heading to the U.S. border in Huehuetán, Mexico, June 7, 2022 (Isaac Guzman/AFP via Getty Images)
That’s not the end. Mohammad Harwin, an illegal immigrant from Afghanistan, is suspected of being on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) terrorist watch list as a member of the terrorist group Hezb-e-Islam, which killed an American serviceman, according to reports.
But when Kerwin crossed the border illegally in March 2023, authorities were unable to confirm his identity, leaving a single military-age man who had traveled thousands of miles across multiple countries free to roam the country again. I let him walk around. It took 13 months for law enforcement to find him on the FBI’s watch list and arrest him.
These examples are alarming enough, but they are a drop in the bucket compared to the threat posed by terrorists who enter the United States and remain undetected.
Since President Biden took office, CBP has recorded more than 9 million contacts with people who entered the United States illegally, but virtually no one has been detained or deported, and nothing has been done about the vast majority. I don’t understand.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 6,000 of these illegal immigrants are from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, all of which ISIS-K is actively recruiting. We do not know exactly how many people associated with ISIS-K and other terrorist groups currently live among us.
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The situation looks even grimmer in light of public reports that foreign smugglers linked to ISIS are facilitating illegal immigration at the southern border. In other words, our tender underbelly is ripe for exploitation by fanatical killers.
The answer to this question is simple. It’s about securing our borders and enforcing America’s immigration laws. But aside from empty hints about executive orders, Biden has done nothing to reverse the open border policies he campaigned on and enacted over the past three years.
This is unacceptable and puts American lives at risk. ISIS-K is no longer a distant threat hiding in the Middle East. It may already be here, just waiting for the right moment to bring about mass destruction.
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Remember, this is the same group that killed 13 military personnel in Kabul during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. It’s the same group that glorifies September 11, 2001. And this is the same group that our intelligence agencies have publicly assessed as planning chemical, biological, and radiological attacks against Western targets, in addition to the usual tactics of suicide bombings and mass shootings.
Meanwhile, Biden continues to facilitate the largest and least secure immigration event in modern U.S. history. We are directly in the hands of terrorists who seek our destruction. I hope I’m wrong, but I fear that under this administration’s policies, we are sitting ducks. It’s time for change.
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