The porous U.S. southern border is becoming a magnet for potential terrorists and criminal cartel associates, a Republican senator warns in a new op-ed.
Sen. John N. Kennedy of Louisiana said evildoers can easily “blend into the masses at the border unnoticed.” He called on Congress to come up with solutions to the problem, pointing to 169 members of the FBI’s terrorist watchlist who attempted to cross the border in fiscal 2023.
“I don’t know if cartel thugs or terrorists make New Year’s resolutions, but I have to imagine that they’re struggling to dream up ways they could have a better year than they did while exploiting President Biden’s broken border policies in 2023,” Mr. Kennedy wrote Friday in the New York Post. “Individuals land on the FBI’s watchlist by associating with groups that hate America, our values, and our people. These terrorist sympathizers may be evil, but they’re not stupid. They know they can blend into the masses at the border unnoticed.”
Mr. Kennedy sounded the alarm during negotiations between the Biden administration and congressional Republicans over policy for the U.S. border and aid for security crises abroad.
Tensions in the Middle East have caused worries about the border to grow louder. The U.S. struck Houthi rebels in Yemen late Thursday, prompting the Shiite-aligned group to vow revenge.
The White House insists it takes border security seriously and has faulted the GOP side at times for the unchecked flow of migrants, pointing to House Republican opposition to emergency spending legislation that included money to help process migrants at the border.
Republicans said Mr. Biden occurred on his watch because his policies invited more illegal immigration, including stopping border wall construction, unwinding a series of Trump-era policies that kept migrants in Mexico and thwarting efforts by states such as Texas to beef up immigration enforcement.
Mr. Kennedy said Mr. Biden “made our southern border a magnet for terrorists.”
“It’s both a national embarrassment and the biggest national security threat our country faces,” he wrote, “yet President Biden continues to ignore the problem.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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