Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas couldn’t provide the number of illegal immigrants in the country that are known to be tied to terrorist organizations operating in the Middle East during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall asked Mayorkas about the issue during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing. Federal authorities recently warned Border Patrol that Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad could be crossing the southern border amid the war between Israel and Hamas, according to an internal memo exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Approximately how many illegal aliens in this country or here on asylum have direct ties to Hamas, to Hezbollah, to the Islamic Jihad or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran?” Marshall asked.
“Senator Marshall, let me assure you that individuals that pose a risk to our national security are our highest enforcement priority, the safety and security of the American public,” Mayorkas responded.
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Marshall continued to press Mayorkas for an exact number, and Mayorkas assured that DHS prioritizes enforcement concerning terror-tied individuals.
“If detention is indeed warranted by reason of the risk they present, then we indeed detain them,” Mayorkas said.
“Do you have an answer for my question?” Marshall asked, to which Mayorkas responded that he believed that he had answered.
“Senator, if an individual is identified as having a nexus to one of those organizations, we would consider them a risk to our national security and take appropriate enforcement action, to include for example, detention and removal,” Mayorkas said.
The number of illegal immigrants whose names appeared on the terror watchlist apprehended by Border Patrol at both the northern and southern borders of the U.S. has skyrocketed in recent years. Border Patrol recorded 172 individuals whose names appeared on the watchlist, compared to 98 in fiscal year 2022 and 16 in fiscal year 2021, according to federal data.
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