Suspected terrorists entering US with fake IDs, crossing southern border, FBI head says

The Christian Post – FBI Director Christopher Wray warned of an increase in the number of known or suspected terrorists using fake identification after crossing the southern border during a congressional hearing on national security concerns.

During his testimony Tuesday before the House Select Intelligence Committee, Wray spoke of terrorists using fake IDs and the problem this poses for the intelligence community.

Wray told Select Committee Chairman Michael Turner, R-Ohio, that the FBI has seen an increase within the last five years of known or suspected terrorists attempting to cross the southern border.

“There are a few different categories of people that we have concerns about,” Wray said. “When a known or suspected terrorist, as in known that they’re a known or suspected terrorist, is apprehended at the border, I’m confident in the vast majority of instances there’s very close lash-up between FBI and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) on it.

“The bigger concern is a situation, for example, where somebody presents fake identification documents at the border and there’s not biometrics to match up — so there’s no way to be able to know that they’re not who they say they are. Then, they get into the country; then somehow we find out that they’re someone in fact who’s on the list.”

Wray’s testimony comes amid ongoing discussions about illegal immigration and the Biden administration’s border policies. The concerns about suspected terrorists entering the country undetected are also nothing new.

Last year, data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection showed that for the fiscal year 2023, 151 individuals on the Terrorist Screening Dataset were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The previous fiscal year saw 98 known or suspected terrorist encounters at the Southwest border, with 2023 following the trend of three years of increases of such encounters.

In 2021, which includes the last three-and-a-half months of the Trump administration and the first seven-and-a-half months of the Biden administration, 15 known or suspected terrorists were caught at the Southwest border …

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