In 2021, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) took twenty-three people into custody whose names appeared in the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). The TSDB contains the list of people the U.S. government suspects of being involved in acts of terrorism.
Fox News learned of the apprehensions after receiving CBP information from a Freedom of Information Act request the news organization had made in December 2021.
The twenty-three people were stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border and detained by CPB Agents in several locations throughout the southern United States.
Of the twenty-three, four were found in the San Diego, El Centro, Del Rio, and Rio Grande Valley Sectors, three were found in the El Paso Sector, and two were found in both the Yuma and Tucson Sectors.
Last month, Representatives John Katko of the Homeland Security Committee and James Comer of the House Oversight Committee wrote a letter addressed to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
The letter asked about reports indicating “that multiple individuals with terrorist ties have been recently apprehended after illegally crossing the border, and that such encounters may be increasing.”
“The American people deserve to know whether President Biden’s weak border policies are allowing terrorists to enter our homeland,” the representatives wrote.
Fox News reported that when Rodney Scott was the acting Border Patrol Chief, he stated that several people on the TSDB list had been arrested, claiming the number of arrests was “at a level we have never seen before.”
“What I can tell you is that [the] data you’re citing here — it means the Border Patrol was doing their job,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki of the recent arrests. “These individuals, these twenty-three people, the Border Patrol, they stopped them. They prevented them from getting into the country. They’re protecting our homeland and keeping us safe.
At her news briefing on April 19, Fox News asked Psaki whether Biden “is worried about holes in the southern border being exploited by people trying to come in and kill Americans.”
“He’s grateful to the Border Patrol for doing their job and stopping these people and preventing them from getting into the country,” she answered.
