The former US president has accused his rival of enabling potential attackers to flood across the nation’s southern border
US President Joe Biden has aided and abetted potential attacks on Americans by implementing policies that have enabled terrorists to easily enter the country across its porous borders, Republican challenger Donald Trump has argued.
“In addition to all of his other well documented offenses, crooked Joe Biden is now also guilty of providing material support for terrorism,” the former president said in a campaign speech on Friday night in Palm Beach, Florida. He noted that since Biden took office in January 2021, the number of potential migrants encountered by US border patrol agents has surged.
The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency reported 736 intercepts of people on the nation’s terrorist watchlist in the government’s latest fiscal year, which ended on September 30. That compared with 199 such encounters in Trump’s last full fiscal year in office. The number of suspected terrorists who were arrested between ports of entry – meaning they may have been trying to avoid contact with US authorities as they entered the country – jumped by more than 5,600%, to 172.
Attempted border crossings by migrants on the terrorism watchlist have continued at a similar pace in the current fiscal year, according to CBP data. By comparison, just 14 suspected terrorists were caught trying to cross between ports of entry during Trump’s four-year term.
Republican lawmakers and other critics have accused Biden of putting Americans at greater risk of terrorist attacks, claiming that his policies have resulted in a huge influx of suspected extremists – many of whom likely avoided detection by Border Patrol agents. In April, billionaire Elon Musk warned that a tragedy on the scale of the September 11, 2001, attacks could occur unless the nation’s border crisis is resolved.
Trump offered a similar assessment, saying, “Our country is going to pay a steep price for many, many years. This is a terrible thing that’s happened.”
Earlier this week, federal agents arrested eight Tajikistan nationals in three US cities on immigration charges after discovering they were suspected of having links to terrorism. The eight suspects reportedly crossed the US-Mexico border last spring without being flagged as potential security risks. Although they lacked proper documents, they were released into the US to await hearings in immigration court.
An Afghan migrant with suspected ties to a terrorist group was allowed to spend nearly a year inside the US after being apprehended by Border Patrol officers, according to media reports. He was released into the country, and even after he was arrested by federal agents in February, he was let loose again because the Texas immigration judge handling his case wasn’t informed of his status as a suspected terrorist. He was taken into custody again in April.
Nearly 2.5 million illegal aliens were encountered by US authorities at the nation’s borders in the last fiscal year, more than five times the level of migrant traffic during Trump’s last fiscal year as president.
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