Former President Donald Trump warned Monday that the United States is vulnerable to an attack from Middle Eastern terrorists because of President Joe Biden’s lax border policies.
“The same people that raided Israel are pouring into our once beautiful USA, through our TOTALLY OPEN SOUTHERN BORDER, at Record Numbers. Are they planning an attack within our Country?” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Crooked Joe Biden and his BOSS, Barack Hussein Obama, did this to us!” the leading 2024 GOP presidential contender added.
NBC News reported last month that 160 foreigners on the U.S. Terrorist Screening Dataset had been apprehended by the Border Patrol as of July. When U.S. citizens on the list are added, the total number is 216.
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That compares with 165 in fiscal year 2022.
“The number of migrants from the Eastern Hemisphere more than doubled, from 110,000 in fiscal year 2022 to 228,000 so far in fiscal year 2023, the Homeland Threat Assessment said. The Eastern Hemisphere includes Africa and the Middle East, among other areas,” NBC News reported.
Real America’s Voice reporter Ben Bergquam reported Sunday that a Border Patrol agent in Lukeville, Arizona — on the U.S.-Mexico border about 150 miles southwest of Phoenix — told him they are apprehending large numbers of migrants from Syria.
🚨🚨🚨@BenBergquam: Just yesterday, border patrol said we are getting huge number of illegals from Syria to Lukeville, AZ right now.
WATCH TO THE END. pic.twitter.com/olZa33itjg
— Grace Chong 🇺🇸 (@gc22gc) October 9, 2023
Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin said in a social media post on Monday that during Trump’s last year in office, the total number of suspects from the FBI’s terrorist watchlist apprehended at the border was three.
Border Patrol arrests of suspects on the FBI’s terror watchlist at the southern border:
FY’23 – 151 (so far).
FY’22 – 98
FY’21 – 15
FY’20 – 3
FY’19 – 0
FY’18 – 6
FY’17 – 2There have also been over 1.5 million *known* gotaways since start of 2021, enough to fill 16 Rose Bowls.
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) October 9, 2023
Fox News reported a record 260,000 migrants crossed illegally into the U.S. in September, which would put the total number at 2.6 million for the fiscal year. That figure comes on top of nearly 2.4 million crossing illegally in fiscal 2022, which was the previous record.
On Monday, Trump also reshared his post from Sept. 18 deriding the Biden administration for giving the green light last month for $6 billion in Iranian funds held overseas to be unfrozen and transferred to Tehran in exchange for five American hostages.
“This absolutely ridiculous 6 Billion Dollar Hostage Deal with Iran has set a terrible PRECEDENT for the future. Buckle up, you are going to see some terrible things start to happen. The 3 years ago highly respected USA has become a laughingstock all over the WORLD,” the former president wrote.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, “Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed militant group.”
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“Details of the operation were refined during several meetings in Beirut attended by [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] officers and representatives of four Iran-backed militant groups, including Hamas, which holds power in Gaza, and Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group and political faction in Lebanon, they said,” the report said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who helped coordinate the hostage swap deal, told CNN on Sunday that Hamas and Iran have a long history of working together but added, “We have not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack.”
Blinken suggested Hamas may have launched the attacks to try to disrupt negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Israel for a peace treaty.
“Who opposes normalization?” he asked. “Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran. So it wouldn’t be a surprise that part of the motivation may have been to disrupt efforts to bring Saudi Arabia and Israel together, along with other countries that may be interested in normalizing relations with Israel.”
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He further rejected the accusation that the $6 billion hostage swap money was used to help fund the Hamas attack, claiming not a “single dollar” had been spent from the account yet. Blinken added the funds can be used only for humanitarian purposes.
