As Texas Governor Rick Perry recently pointed out, because the surge of unaccompanied minors has caused a crisis situation at the border, it’s a “very real possibility” that individuals from extremist groups like ISIS have taken advantage of the distraction and crossed into the United States. In recent months, Governor Perry said, Texas has seen historic levels of individuals from countries with terrorist ties.
But Governor Perry is not the only one who is worried that the unsecured border will lead to an attack on the homeland. According to government watchdog group Judicial Watch, high-level federal law enforcement, intelligence, and other sources have confirmed that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued. Judicial Watch’s sources say that the militant Islamic group ISIS is operating in Juarez, a city just across the border from El Paso, Texas. The Texas Department of Public Safety also warns that ISIS social media messaging shows that militants are aware of the porous U.S.-Mexico border, and are expressing an “increased interest” in crossing over to carry out a terrorist attack in the United States.
Given the growing terrorist threat, one would never imagine that part of the Administration’s response to the border crisis would be a loosening of security restrictions on airplanes. Yet, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) instead decided that illegal aliens will now be allowed to board planes with merely the form that gives them notice to appear in immigration proceedings. How the Administration could opt to allow illegal aliens traveling over the border to bypass security measures American citizens must follow in the face of a heightened terrorist threat is hard to fathom. But for this Administration, homeland security always takes a backseat to the open borders agenda. Of course, once it gets out that the TSA will let one group of people board without proper ID, the whole purpose of checking anyone’s ID is undermined. But only the convenience of illegal aliens seems to be a real consideration.
If, as is widely expected, the Administration follows up its past executive amnesties with an even larger amnesty, security loopholes are only likely to get wider. As true immigration reformer Sen. Jeff Sessions (R- Ala.) said last week, an administrative amnesty to some five million illegal aliens would be a “security nightmare.” He explained: “[i]mmigration agents already tell us that the President’s DACA order has redirected resources away from national security and created massive enforcement loopholes that can be exploited by terrorists.” Such resources will be further strained to the breaking point if an administrative amnesty at least six times as large is put in place.
Unfortunately, terrorist groups are paying attention.