Illegal immigrants “with ties to terrorism” are expected to exploit the US border as the threat level remains high, the Department of Homeland Security warned on Wednesday.
The agency has detailed several warnings in its annual Homeland Threat Assessment, which is used to inform local, state and federal agencies about threats to public safety and security, saying the “terrorist threat landscape” over the next year will “remain high.”
“Over the next year, we expect that certain people with ties to terrorism and certain criminal actors will continue their efforts to use the flow of migrants and the complex environment of border security to enter the United States,” the assessment said.
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Immigrants arrive at a remote US Border Patrol facility after crossing the US-Mexico border on December 07, 2023, in Lukeville, Arizona. The Department of Homeland Security’s Security Threat Assessment has warned of migrants with links to terrorism exploiting border difficulties. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
“Individuals with ties to terrorism continue to attempt to enter the Homeland at the US-Mexico and US-Canada borders and through the immigration system,” it continued.
There were 172 meeting of nations on the terrorist list at the border between ports of entry in the last fiscal year and more than 560 ports of entry.
The report also raised concerns about violence looming in the 2024 election cycle, which has already seen assassination attempts on former President Trump, and violent foreign extremists carrying out potential attacks as a result of ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
Groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda “maintain an ongoing intent to carry out or encourage attacks on the Homeland and use conflicts in the Middle East to justify this intent,” the report said.
“Among the state actors, we expect Iran to remain the main sponsor of terrorism and continue its efforts to advance targets against people – including current and former US officials – in the United States,” the assessment warned.
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Besides Iran, China and Russia have increasingly used artificial intelligence to create “highly believable” text, video and audio to reach American audiences while hiding their origins, the report said.
The terrorist list, called the Terrorist Screening Dataset, includes known or suspected terrorists, as well as additional individuals believed to pose a threat to the US — including their affiliates on the watch list.
Immigrants are photographed at a US Border Patrol processing facility after crossing the US-Mexico border on December 07, 2023, in Lukeville, Arizona. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Despite the slow decline in migrant arrivals, they are still arriving in high numbers, “complicating border security and immigration,” according to the threat assessment.
“Immigrant numbers at the US-Canada border continue to increase, with more than 181,000 immigration arrivals in FY 2024 through August, compared to approximately 170,000 arrivals during the same period in FY 2023,” the report said. “Unlike the US-Mexico border, most watch list encounters on the US-Canada border occur at ports of entry, and most of these people have legal status in Canada.”
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Encounters with migrants from countries in the Eastern Hemisphere, including China, India, Russia, and West African countries, decreased slightly in FY 2024 from about 10% to 9% of the total, but are still high numbers meeting than before FY 2023, the report. said.