Senator Roger Marshall (R., Kan.) and three other Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday requiring federal agencies to report to Congress about how many people on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s terrorist watchlist are encountered crossing the U.S. border.
The legislation, if passed, would demand that the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence provide monthly reports to Congress on the number of terrorist encounters at the border and where those encounters took place. It will also require the government agencies to provide details about why individuals are on the watchlist in the first place and whether they have any ties to terrorist organizations, among other items listed in the document.
The bill, formally known as the Where Are the Terrorists Now Act, aims to crack down on the record number of terrorists entering the U.S., especially through the southern border, given the Biden administration’s lenient policies.
“There is an invasion at our southern border. Every day that the Biden Administration continues their open border agenda, Americans’ national security is at risk,” Marshall said in a statement announcing the new bill. “Month after month, we have seen historic numbers of migrants on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist infiltrating our country’s border. The threat the individuals on this list pose to Americans’ safety is too great for us to do nothing.”
According to data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there were 169 terrorists on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database encountered between southern ports of entry in fiscal year 2023, an increase of 98 from the previous year. With the northern border’s numbers included, the total rose slightly to 172 last fiscal year.
The number of terrorists encountered at the ports of entry, however, was much higher. Last fiscal year, there were 564 encounters, with 80 at the southern border and 484 at the northern.
Senators John Cornyn (R., Texas), Steve Daines (R., Mont.), and John Kennedy (R., La.) also co-sponsored the legislation.
“Since President Biden took office, Border Patrol has caught hundreds of individuals on the terrorist watchlist trying to cross the southern border, and we don’t know how many more have made it into the country undetected,” Cornyn said. “This bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to report every individual on the terrorist watchlist encountered at the border to Congress so that we can hold the Biden administration accountable.”
“The Biden administration continues to undermine our national security by ignoring the crisis at our border. More members of the FBI’s terror watchlist are sneaking into our country than ever before,” Kennedy said. “If the Biden administration is going to forfeit its duty to protect American citizens, Congress needs to have transparency from the Department of Homeland Security so we can address the real terrorist threat open borders pose to American communities.”