Fox News learned the border patrol arrested 23 people on the terror list along the southern border in 2021:
Between Jan. 20 and Dec. 27, 2021, there were 23 encounters with individuals whose names matched on the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB).Four were in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, 4 in Del Rio Sector, 3 in El Paso Sector, 2 in Tucson Sector, 2 in Yuma Sector, 4 in El Centro Sector and 4 in San Diego Sector. The information was provided to Fox News in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted in December.The Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) contains information about the identities of those who are known or “reasonably suspected” of being involved in terrorist activities. Republicans lawmakers have repeatedly called for the number of those encountered at the border to be made public by the administration.
Biden ousted Rodney Scott as border patrol chief in the spring of 2021. Scott served over 30 years in that role.
In October 2021, Scott told Fox News that terrorists are trying to cross the border:
“We have terrorist threats we can’t get into in this type of a forum but they are real,” Scott said in a preview released on “Special Report” Monday.”They exist, and they want to come across that border. Statistically, it always includes rapists, murderers, potential terrorists every single year if you look at CBP’s statistics publicly available. Those all exist in who we actually catch,” he added. “To think there is not just as bad or worse people in those getting away would be naive.”
After Scott’s ouster, some in the media noticed the border patrol quietly deleting announcements about terrorists apprehended at the border.
The border patrol released a press release in April 2021 detailing the arrest of two men on the FBI’s Terrorism Watch List and No-Fly Zone.
The border patrol deleted the press release because it “was not properly reviewed and contained certain disclosure and policy information related to national security that required CBP to remove it from our website.”
Then in December, Yuma Sector Chief Patrol Agent Chris Clem deleted a tweet after agents “apprehended a potential terrorist who illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico.”
Clem wrote the 21-year-old Saudi Arabian man had links “to several Yemeni subjects of interest.”
Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) said Clem deleted the tweet since it had “law enforcement sensitive information” while violating protocols.
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