Twenty-three years ago, I watched the horrors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks unfold, knowing my father was in the Pentagon when it was struck. That day shaped the course of my life. I was determined to join the fight against terrorism and ended up attending the U.S. Military Academy . This decision led to my deployment in Afghanistan , where I was driven by the belief that our efforts abroad were vital to keeping our homeland safe.
Lamentably, the global war on terrorism has since become synonymous with bureaucratic entanglement, marked by unchecked expansion and an erosion of accountability. Yet the one unifying facet amid all the United States’s failings was a dogged commitment to protecting American soil.
Now, even that appears to have been lost as recent policy failures undermine the gains achieved over the past 20 years of sacrifice.
The past four years of reckless national security decisions have triggered a cascade of serious concerns. These include the resurgence of the Islamic State , a more coordinated " axis of evil " that has started new wars in Europe and the Middle East, failed counterterrorism efforts in Africa , increased Chinese espionage , and unchecked illegal immigration, to name just a few.
However, it is the latter issue that poses the greatest risk of a terrorist attack inside our own borders. During a recent trip to the southern border earlier this year, a senior legal official with exceptional access and insight into the types of people attempting entry into the U.S. remarked, "It's not a matter of 'if' [there is] another 9/11, but when and where."
More than 7.3 million illegal immigrants have entered the U.S. under this administration, including 375 people on the terrorist watchlist — that’s a more than 3,000% increase compared to the Trump administration, according to a House Judiciary Committee report . This staggering number underscores a systemic failure in the way our border and security infrastructure are being managed.
Given this data, vigilance should be high, yet the administration has consistently downplayed the risks posed by its open border policies. Senior officials have issued stark warnings but gotten a minimal response.
FBI Director Christopher Wray, for example, in repeated congressional appearances, has highlighted three primary threats facing the U.S. homeland: international terrorism, domestic terrorism, and state-sponsored terrorism. Speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee in December, Wray emphasized that all three threats are " simultaneously elevated ."
The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, Jason Owens, called the southern border a “ national security threat ” and admitted that the “ 140,000 known gotaways ” are his greatest concern. There is no record of who they are, where they are from, what they are carrying, or what their intentions might be, he admitted.
Other officials and Border Patrol agents have raised alarms about the ability of terrorists to exploit vulnerabilities at the southern border. In a piece for Foreign Affairs, former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell and Graham Allison, a former U.S. assistant secretary of defense for policy and plans, warned that “ the terrorism warning lights are blinking red again .”
Yet, the Biden-Harris administration seems willing to do little more than utter toothless warnings, such as Vice President Kamala Harris’s weak assertion that “if you come to our border, you will be turned back.”
That was in 2021. Since that time, reports have revealed that people from countries with known terrorist activities, such as Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan, are crossing the border in significant numbers.
Worse, some of these people have been released into American communities due to insufficient intelligence at the time of their detention. One such case involved an Afghan migrant with known ties to Hezb-e-Islami, a terrorist group, who was released twice into the U.S. before being rearrested after media reports drew attention to the case .
This particular case also highlighted the failure or inability of agencies and courts to share vital information about these people. Here, specifically, the Department of Homeland Security prosecutors failed to inform the federal immigration judge that the Afghan person was on the terrorist watchlist or that he could pose a national security threat, instead only stating he might flee.
Problematically, the DHS is restricted in what it can reveal in court and has limited ability to provide crucial information to the judge. These disconnects in information sharing create dangerous gaps that hinder the ability to track and monitor threats effectively.
Only a few days ago, a man affiliated with ISIS was accused of planning a mass shooting at a Jewish center in New York City. He reportedly planned to use a human smuggler to enter the U.S. from our northern border and was stopped just a few miles short of the border with Canada. Thankfully, this case ended in success for the U.S. But how many more like him have been able to enter the country undetected and continue to work with their terrorist affiliates?
There are also nation-state actors who have sought to exploit the failings of our border. In the first half of fiscal 2024, 24,376 Chinese nationals were encountered at the southwestern border, with 24,214 of them being apprehended for crossing illegally. The number of encounters with Chinese nationals in March 2024 alone represents an increase of more than 8,000% compared to March 2021, and the total encounters in the first half of 2024 already exceeded those of the entire previous fiscal year.
It's highly likely some of these people are spies. Despite that, the Biden-Harris administration simplified the vetting process for Chinese nationals in 2023, according to leaked internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection communications . The communications instructed CBP officials to reduce the number of interview questions for Chinese migrants from 40 to five , effectively fast-tracking this population for processing and release into the country.
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The 9/11 Commission Report , released in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks, highlighted the dangers of neglecting border security, and yet here we are, repeating the same mistakes. Once again, we find ourselves in a reactive stance versus a proactive one, which reflects a troubling neglect of the hard-earned lessons from the past.
The fight against terrorism is no longer confined to overseas. It’s now at our doorstep, brought here by a failure to enforce policies that prioritize national security. Make no mistake: The Biden-Harris administration’s dangerous immigration agenda puts everyone at risk.
Meaghan Mobbs is the director of the Center for American Safety and Security at the Independent Women’s Forum (iwf.org/CASS).
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