FBI chief says CBP facing ‘heck of a problem’ with national security threats at southern border
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FBI Director Christopher Wray informed lawmakers on Wednesday that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are facing a “heck of challenge” as a result of national security threats at the southern border.
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, requested Wray at a Senate listening to in regards to the FBI evaluation “of our national security threats along our border, southern border in particular” and if he may say extra in regards to the quantity of recognized or suspected terrorists encountered coming in from Mexico.
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FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/Pool through AP)
Wray informed Moran that border security is a “major, major challenge” and that “any porous point of entry is a potential vulnerability that bad actors of all sorts, including national security threats, can seek to exploit.”
He stated that he has been right down to FBI discipline places of work which have border crossings as half of their areas of duty and met with Customs and Border Protection officers.
“I’ve had CBP folks show me around so I can see firsthand what they’re dealing with. And they have a heck of a challenge on their hands,” he stated. “And we, through our joint terrorism task forces in particular, work very closely with our DHS partners to try to bring the counterterrorism dimension to the threat.”
He stated that he couldn’t say anymore in an open listening to however added that “certainly you’re right to be focused on it as an issue of concern.”
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According to CBP, there have been 157 encounters of individuals on the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) at U.S. borders to date in FY 2022 between ports of entry and 35 encounters between ports of entry.
Fox News reported this week that a suspected terrorist was launched into the U.S. in April and was not apprehended till two weeks after he was flagged by the FBI.
The suspected terrorist, Isnardo Garcia-Amado, 35, was launched into the United States by Border Patrol brokers on April 18 close to Yuma, Arizona, and given a GPS monitoring machine as a substitute for detention, based on a memo from a federal supply obtained by Fox News.
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Garcia-Amado, a Colombian citizen, was then flagged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Terrorist Screening Center on April 21, which decided he’s a match on the terror watch listing.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice introduced on Tuesday that it had arrested an Iraqi national for an alleged plot to assist 4 Iraqi nationals come into the United States throughout the southern border to assist kill former President George W. Bush.
