Four foreign nationals, whose names match those on the terror watch list, have been stopped trying to enter the U.S. via the southern border since October, a congressional aide familiar with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) information told Fox News.
That information shows that three migrants from Yemen and one from Serbia were picked up at the southern border by U.S. Border Patrol since the beginning of the fiscal year in October.
The Serbian national was encountered on Jan. 28, amid an increasing surge in migrant numbers in recent months. The apprehensions were first reported by Axios.
A CBP spokesman said in a statement that security efforts at the border “are layered and include multiple levels of rigorous screening that allow us to detect and prevent people who pose national security or public safety risks from entering the United States.”
“DHS works with our international partners to share intelligence and other information, including to prevent individuals on the terrorist watchlist from entering the United States. CBP adjudicates individuals encountered at and between our ports of entry against several classified and unclassified databases to determine if they pose a threat to national security, consistent with the law,” the spokesman said. “While encounters of known and suspected terrorists at our borders are very uncommon, they underscore the importance of the critical work our agents carry out on a daily basis to vet all individuals encountered at our borders.”
Republicans have been warning about the risk of terrorists getting through the border amid the surge in numbers and the rollback of a number of Trump-era protections by the Biden administration.
CBP encountered more than 100,000 migrants in February, with the Department of Homeland Security admitting that the numbers CBP are facing are “overwhelming.”
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comic by A.F. Branco
