Over 100 Terror Watch List Encounters at US Borders in FY 2022

According to recently posted data, there have been 131 encounters at U.S. borders with those on the terrorist watch list in fiscal year 2022.

This is based on data recently posted on the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Enforcement Statistics page, which broke down encounters with those listed on the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB).

According to the data, 35 of those encounters were at the southern border and the remaining 96 were at the northern border.

According to a report published yesterday by Fox News, it’s been a fight to get this data posted since Biden took office.

“CBP started posting the numbers online last week, after promising Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee who had peppered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with requests that the number of those encountered who were recorded on the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) be given to Congress and made public.

After Biden took office in January 2021, CBP stopped publicly posting updates on TSDB encounters at the border, labeling the information as [‘]law enforcement sensitive,[’] even though the Trump administration had previously released this data to the public, which frustrated the GOP congressmen demanding the info.”

As mentioned in the Fox report, this is only data for those encountered. CBP estimated 62K illegal immigrants crossed into the USA in March alone and were not apprehended.

Considering the current record high levels of illegal border crossings, it’s not a comforting thought to ponder as we head into a summer where those numbers look set to explode.

As the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) pointed out in a well done writeup on the newly released data, President Trump was criticized in 2018 for linking border crossings with potential terror suspects.

It looks like he wasn’t as wide of the mark as his critics assumed.