by John Solomon
With a constitutional crisis brewing in Texas and voters nationwide alarmed by the toll of illegal immigration, some of the FBI’s most famous retired executives are issuing a stark warning to Congress that President Joe Biden’s border policies have unleashed an “invasion” of military-aged male foreigners who pose “one of the most pernicious ever” threats to American security.
Ten former FBI executives – some who oversaw the bureau’s intelligence, counterterrorism, criminal and training operations – expressed their alarm in a letter dated Jan. 17 to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and the chairmen of the House and Senate committees that preside over the U.S. intelligence and Homeland Security apparatus.
Their language affirms that of both current FBI Director Christopher Wray, who testified the nation’s security lights are “blinking red,” and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who alleges Biden’s loosening of border security has allowed an “invasion” of America by foreigners with troubling origins and attributes.
“In its modern history the U.S. has never suffered an invasion of the homeland and, yet, one is unfolding now,” the FBI luminaries wrote. “Military aged men from across the globe, many from countries or regions not friendly to the United States, are landing in waves on our soil by the thousands – not by splashing ashore from a ship or parachuting from a plane but rather by foot across a border that has been accurately advertised around the world as largely unprotected with ready access granted.
“It would be difficult to overstate the danger represented by the presence inside our borders of what is comparatively a multi-division army of young single adult males from hostile nations and regions whose background, intent, or allegiance is completely unknown,” they added.
House Speaker Mike Johnson received the letter this week and told Just the News on Thursday it adds to House Republicans’ determination to hold out for a deal that completely closes the border.
“This letter from national security leaders is further confirmation of what we already know: President Biden’s open border policies are increasing the risks of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil,” Johnson said. “An unprecedented threat at this scale requires transformational policy changes immediately to secure the border and end the administration’s mass release of illegals into our country.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., a top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said the letter captured the reality of the threat from some of the nation’s most experienced law enforcement veterans of protecting the homeland.
“This sobering letter from former FBI, Homeland Security, and other law enforcement officials describes the chilling reality of why @POTUS’s open border is a clear and present danger to America,” Sen. Johnson wrote on X.
The former FBI executives who signed the letter have more than 250 years of combined experience in the bureau’s intelligence, counterterrorism, and criminal operations and served under seven former presidents and four different FBI directors. They included:
- Kevin Brock, the former assistant director of intelligence and former principal principal deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center;
- Chris Swecker, the former assistant director of the criminal division;
- David Szady, former assistant director of counterintelligence;
- Timothy J. Healy, the former director of the Terrorist Screening Center;
- Former Executive Assistant Director Ruben Garcia;
- Mark Morgan, former assistant director for training and the former acting commissioner of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection;
- William Gavin, retired assistant director for the Inspection Division;
- Timothy McNally, former assistant director of the Los Angeles division;
- Retired Special Agent David Mitchell, who oversaw the FBI operations in Milwaukee;
- Special Agent Jody Weiss, who oversaw FBI operations in Philadelphia.
Brock, who helped organize the letter, said it reflected the warnings and alarm of a much larger body of the current and retired FBI community.
“We limited the letter to ten signers due to its urgency but it reflects the sentiments of many more former FBI Agents and executives who expressed to us a shared deep concern about this particular threat to the nation,” Brock told Just the News. “We are by no means the first to articulate unease about the surge of military aged men from hostile regions and countries coming across the border.
“But we felt our collective voice, which sits atop mounds of experience combatting threats to the nation, might help draw the greater attention that this specific danger deserves and increase momentum to actually do something about it. The FBI and its federal and state partners can identify and find these individuals. They are good at that. Give them the priority orders to do so,” he said.
The FBI luminaries signaled in their letter that their motives weren’t political, but rather driven by the fact that their experience fighting hostile foreign threats had led them to believe the current border crisis was one of the most dangerous they had ever seen.
“As former senior executives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation with deep experience combatting dangers to the nation, we write to express our concern about a current, specific threat that may be one of the most pernicious ever to menace the United States,” their letter stated.
“The danger arises from the nature of the threat itself,” it added. “Wars and espionage and bombings and riots are sadly familiar delivery systems of instability, intimidation, and insecurity. The country has faced these and more throughout its history and has held together, though not without struggle.”
The magnitude of the country’s border insecurity, however, poses much greater dangers, they added.
“Any violation of the nation’s immigration laws increases risks, but the surge in numbers of single military-aged males descending upon American cities and towns is alarming and perilous,” they wrote.
“Additionally, they are not just from terror-linked regions, but from China and Russia as well as hostile adversaries of the U.S. with aspirations to devastate national infrastructure.”
Morgan, who spent two decades in the FBI before becoming the head of the U.S. border protection agency under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, said the letter’s timing was important as Texas fights with the Biden administration over the right to close the border with its own state resources and Congress mulls a border security package.
“They made the case exactly what we’ve been saying for a very long time, that border security is synonymous with national security,” Morgan told the “Just the News, No Noise” television show on Wednesday. “And right now, because of this administration’s open border policies, they are jeopardizing every aspect of our nation’s national security.
“So I happily signed on, and I hope it’s gonna raise some eyebrows on Capitol Hill,” Morgan added.
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John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist, author and digital media entrepreneur who serves as Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief of Just the News. Before founding Just the News, Solomon played key reporting and executive roles at some of America’s most important journalism institutions, such as The Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Newsweek, The Daily Beast and The Hill.
