President Joe Biden’s growing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border is getting new attention this week after authorities admitted – perhaps by accident – that at least two people on the FBI’s Terrorism Watch List were nabbed trying to slip into the country.
Biden’s own spokesperson struggled to explain what had been going on… and why the administration was being so secretive about the arrests.
“These types of incidents are very uncommon,” was all Press Secretary Jen Psaki would say when asked about it at a White House news conference this week. “Encounters of known suspected terrorists are very uncommon.”
Then, she passed the buck, telling reporters that the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection could provide more info.
“While this is rare, this is a reflection of them doing their jobs,” she insisted.
Except for one problem: Anyone turning to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for more information would be hard-pressed to find it.
The agency initially seemed ready to trumpet the arrests, tweeting about them and issuing a press release.
But then things got strange, as both announcements were quickly deleted.
“Part of the Border Patrol’s mission states we will protect the country from terrorists,” Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino said in the deleted statement. “Today, like every other day, our agents did that. These apprehensions at our border illustrates the importance of our mission and how we can never stop being vigilant in our everyday mission to protect this great country.”
The first arrest took place a little more than a week into Biden’s presidency when an unnamed 33-year-old from Yemen who is on both the FBI terror watch list and the no-fly list was caught crossing three miles west of the Calexico Port of Entry.
That’s near where the U.S. city of Calexico, Calif. borders the Mexican city of Mexicali.
When they took him into custody, they found a cellphone SIM card hidden under the insole of his shoe.
The second arrest took place almost two months to the day later, in almost the exact some spot, when U.S. agents caught a 26-year-old from Yemen who was also on both the terror watch list and the no-fly list.
US says arrested 2 ‘illegal aliens’ from Yemen near US border over ‘terrorism’https://t.co/f1zHYyPjN5
— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) April 6, 2021
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., said the arrests were a sure sign that the word is out – that with former President Donald Trump out of the White House and Biden in charge, the borders are easier to penetrate than ever.
“Joe Biden declared open borders and now terrorists are trying to take advantage,” he wrote on Twitter.
In a radio appearance, Cruz went even further as he hit Biden for allowing a major crisis to happen at the border under his watch.
“We’re on pace to have over 2 million people crossing illegally this year,” Cruz told Michael Berry. “All of that was preventable, all of it is the result of deliberate political decisions by Joe Biden that are producing a humanitarian catastrophe and a national security and a public health catastrophe at the same time.”
With thousands of undocumented immigrants streaming in daily, and now with terrorists caught trying to slip through, it seems Biden is having second thoughts about his decision to halt construction on Trump’s border wall: The Washington Times reports that the work has quietly resumed in select areas.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tried to deny the report.
“Wall construction remains paused, there is a review underway taking a look at funds that have been allocated,” she said this past week. “We have never believed the wall is an answer to addressing immigration challenges.”
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas did as well… at first.
“The president has communicated quite clearly his decision that the emergency that triggered the devotion of DOD funds to the construction of the border wall is ended,” he said.
But then Mayorkas let slip that the work has indeed resumed, admitting that they are now filling in “gaps” and handling “areas of the wall that need renovation, particular projects that need to be finished.”
Interesting potential turn of events. Walls work! https://t.co/nhWi2QkLPr
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) April 6, 2021
Walls work — who knew?
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert.