How many terrorists has the Biden administration let slip over our border? Nobody knows.
On Tuesday, Republican lawmakers demanded Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas answer why a known Somalian terrorist, “a confirmed member of al Shabaab,” was allowed to roam free in the United States for nearly a year.
The Border Patrol picked up the man, 27, in California in March 2023, but screwed up the terror watchlist screening and let him go. He eventually found his way to Minnesota, where (after the feds clocked the mistake) Immigration and Customs Enforcement nabbed him in January.
But the “what ifs” are chilling.
Just last month, Border Patrol agents nabbed Basel Bassel Ebbadian, an illegal migrant from Lebanon who admitted he was a member of Hezbollah and would “try to make a bomb” in the United States. Had he been more discreet, he might well have gotten released, as most illegal migrants are.
The Border Patrol has recorded 70 encounters with individuals on the terror watchlist since October 2023; in the 12 months before that, 172.
And of course the smarter terrorists can pay the cartels to help them cross in a spot where they likely won’t get stopped at all: The Congressional Budget Office estimates “gotaways” totaled 860,000 in FY 2023 alone.
FBI Director Christopher Wray last month warned Congress of “a threat stream that we’re very concerned about”: a “smuggling network” with “ISIS ties” that’s exploiting the Biden open-border policy to sneak people into the country.
Last week, the NYPD busted a group of Venezuelan migrant squatters in the Bronx, finding drugs, ammo and firearms, including a “ghost gun,” in their basement hideout.
If a criminal gang can get that far, a high-end terrorist cell can surely get set up to pull off an attack at least as awful as the recent Moscow slaughter, as one federal official told The Post.
President Biden’s decision to open the border would be a betrayal of his oath of office even if every “asylum seeker” got screened before being waved in.
But in reality, he’s let the Border Patrol get so overwhelmed by the tide that the only ones controlling the southern US border are Mexico’s cartels.
Sure seems the question is not if the ticking time bomb will go off, but when.