Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise as a New York City Representative in a post-9/11 world to talk about how concerned I am that our border is not secure. Since Joe Biden took office, CBP has encountered at least 340 individuals on the terrorist watch list along the southern border or in our interior. For example, an Afghan migrant on the terrorist watch list spent nearly 1 year inside the United States after he was apprehended and released by CBP agents in March of 2023. He was processed at the border. CBP released him without alerting ICE officials about potential terrorism ties, and he was free to fly domestically in the United States. He was arrested in February 2024, then released by an immigration judge in March, who was not told that he was a national security risk. Last month, an illegal immigrant from Lebanon caught at the border admitted to CBP that he was a member of Hezbollah and was headed to New York to try to make a bomb. In February of 2024, ICE apprehended another terrorist who was allowed to roam in the U.S. for nearly 1 year after crossing the border illegally, and the terrorist was a member of Al-Shabaab, who was only arrested after ICE became aware of his threat to national security. Additionally, in February, a Colombian man on the terrorist watch list was caught crossing into the Eagle Pass area. In August of last year, it was discovered that a smuggler with ISIS ties helped more than a dozen Uzbek migrants into the United States over the southern border.…”