Sen. Cornyn Forewarns of Terror Threat on US Soil as ISIS-Linked Network Confirmed at Southern Border

Americans will have to ‘live with the consequences of that.’

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) accompanied by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on May 1, 2024. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has forewarned that it’s just a matter of time for terror threats to eventuate on U.S. soil after Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines confirmed on May 15 that a human smuggling network with ties to the ISIS terror group was facilitating the passage of illegal immigrants across the U.S. southern border.

Mr. Cornyn said the situation at the border led him to believe that it is a question of “when,” not “if,” the threat will eventuate, during a portion of the May 15 hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which was actually focused on virtual threats to the 2024 election, such as cyberattacks.

At one point in the discussion, Mr. Cornyn shifted the focus to physical threats and asked Ms. Haines to comment on FBI Director Christopher Wray’s warning on March 11 that the agency was “very concerned” that some overseas facilitators of a human smuggling network had ISIS ties.

Mr. Cornyn said that that the FBI director “talked about the ISIS-affiliated individuals who are facilitating the passage of migrants across the U.S.–Mexican border into the United States,” and asked Ms. Haines whether she would be able to reveal in open session how many illegal immigrants have ties to ISIS operatives and whether the intelligence community assesses that individuals with those connections have entered the United States through the U.S. southern border.

“I can support what director Wray has testified to publicly, but I can’t answer your specific questions in open session, but we can obviously have further discussions,” Ms. Haines replied.

Mr. Cornyn sought clarification, asking her, “You can’t tell us what he told us, which is ISIS facilitators have managed to deliver people to the southern border and they have likely been released into the United States?”

“There is a facilitation network that we have been monitoring, obviously that has some links to ISIS, and that is something that we have been managing. But I can’t go further into detail on that without being in closed session,” Ms. Haines replied.

Her response prompted Mr. Cornyn to remark that he believes that it’s a matter of “when,” not “if,” Americans will have to “live with the consequences of that.”

The senator’s comments come as the latest Homeland Threat Assessment indicates that foreign terrorists are actively gathering information on travel routes that could facilitate their entry into the United States.

It also follows the FBI director’s March 11 testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, in which he warned that there was “no doubt” that criminals had entered the country across the southern border.

“There is a particular network that has—some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have—ISIS ties that we’re very concerned about, and we’ve been spending enormous amounts of effort with our partners investigating,” Mr. Wray testified.

He added that threats from various groups had reached a “whole other level.”

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have also recently issued a public service announcement saying that foreign terrorist organizations, such as ISIS, could target certain events across the United States during “Pride Month”-related events in June.

Terror Threat in Focus

So far this fiscal year, agents have encountered 196 individuals on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist trying to enter the United States, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, with 81 of them caught trying to enter illegally between ports of entry.

Republicans, who blame President Joe Biden and his administration’s policies for record numbers of illegal immigrants pouring into the country, have repeatedly raised concerns about the associated national security threat.

In October 2023, a group of Republican senators sounded the alarm after Border Patrol agents caught illegal border crossers carrying explosives that Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said were “tailor-made for terrorism.”

More recently, a group of House Homeland Security Committee Republicans expressed concern in an April 3 letter to Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about unanswered questions regarding the DHS’s current practices in processing and releasing known or suspected terrorists into the United States.

“We are now facing a consistent stream of cases highlighted in the news of aliens allegedly on the terrorist watchlist either being apprehended at the border or discovered in the interior,” they wrote.

The lawmakers demanded information from Mr. Mayorkas on the number of aliens who were on the terrorist watchlist who have been released into the United States since January 2021—the month that President Biden took office.

The GOP lawmakers expressed concern about whether the Biden administration’s “catch-and-release” program was resulting in more people on the terror watchlist entering U.S. communities.

Under the Biden administration’s “catch-and-release” program, illegal immigrants are released into U.S. communities to await asylum hearings.

Mr. Mayorkas recently admitted that more than 70 percent of illegal immigrants are being released after an initial arrest.

A DHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that it would respond to the letter through official channels while insisting that the agency and its intelligence, counterterrorism, and law enforcement partners screen and vet individuals prior to their entry into the United States to prevent those who pose a terror threat from coming in.

Starting with President Biden’s first full fiscal year in office until now, a total of 351 people on the terrorist watchlist have been caught trying to enter the country illegally between ports of entry.

By contrast, during the four years of the Trump presidency, that number was about one dozen.