Border Patrol: 50 migrants on terror watch list arrested at border so far this year

CHRIS PANDOLFO
June 17, 2022

Under President Joe Biden's watch, the number of people on the terror watch list apprehended at the southern border has spiked compared to the years former President Donald Trump was in office.

There were 50 arrests of migrants on the Terrorist Screening Dataset at the southwest border in FY 2022, according to new data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Friday. That's a dramatic increase from 15 such encounters in FY 2021, President Joe Biden's first year in office.

While Trump was in office, the highest number of terror watch list arrests at the border was six in FY 2018.

There were three such arrests in FY 2020, zero in FY 2019, and just two in FY 2017 when Trump occupied the White House.

To sum up, there have been 65 terror watch list arrests at the border under Biden compared to just 11 under Trump.



Bill Melugin
@BillFOXLA

New CBP data reveals 50 people on the FBI’s terror watchlist have been arrested by Border Patrol at the Southern border so far in FY’22. That’s already higher than the previous 5 years combined.
CBP sources tell me there have been 440,000+ known gotaways since October.
@FoxNews

https://twitter.com/i/status/1537860900639612928


Watch on Twitter
2:13 PM · Jun 17, 2022

CBP said there were a total of 192 encounters at points of entry in FY 2022, with 50 at the southern border and 142 at the northern border. That's compared to 157 total encounters in FY 2021, 196 in FY 2020, 538 during the border surge in FY 2019, 351 in FY 2018, and 333 in FY 2017.

These numbers come after CBP reported a record high 239,416 migrant encounters in May, which was a 2% increase over April's number. Data showed that a whopping 25% of those encountered had been previously arrested and deported by CBP.

The actual number of migrants crossing U.S. borders illegally is far greater than what's reported because many of them are not apprehended. Fox News reported Friday there were as many as 440,000 "known gotaways" since October, with more than 50,000 in May alone. Adding that number to 400,000 known gotaways since the beginning of FY 2021, Fox reported there were more than 800,000 illegal immigrants who got past U.S. border agents since October 2020.

Last month, the Center for Immigration Studies estimated that illegal immigration has surged 10% during Biden's presidency. The administration has faced intense criticism from Republicans who blame Biden's decision to undo many of Trump's restrictive immigration policies for the surge in illegal immigration.

Biden officials have blamed factors outside their control for rampant migration to the U.S., including natural disasters, poor economies, corruption, and violence in South and Central America.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told migrants not to come to the U.S. in late May, warning that immigration laws will be enforced and that anyone without legal permission to remain in the U.S. will be expelled.

Border Patrol: 50 migrants on terror watch list arrested at border so far this year - TheBlaze