by Jennie Taer
Border Patrol has arrested 143 illegal migrants on the terror watchlist in fiscal year 2023, surpassing 2022’s total by roughly 25%, according to federal data updated Tuesday.
In all of fiscal year 2022, Border Patrol nabbed 98 individuals whose names appeared on the terror watchlist, according to the data. The data include both southern and northern border apprehensions of individuals on the terror watchlist.
In June alone, Border Patrol agents apprehended 16 illegal migrants on the terror watchlist, 15 of whom were caught at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the data.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to Congress in 2022 that there were “significant criminal threats” coming across the southern border.
“What I would say is that we see significant criminal threats coming from south of the border, whether it’s guns, drugs, money, violence, we see transnational criminal organizations that are sending their drugs here and that are using street gangs here to distribute it, and that contributes to the violent crime crisis here. We’ve had takedowns just in the last few months that I could give you as an example,” Wray said at the time.
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Jennie Taer is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Illegal Immigrants” by John R. Modlin.