Former Intel Official Says The US-Mexico Border Is Vulnerable To Terrorism Threats

(PatriotWise.com) — Mike Morrell, the former CIA Director under Barack Obama, recently warned of the terrorist threat posed to the US homeland by the vulnerable US southern border.

According to an op-ed co-written by Morrell and former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Graham Allison, President Biden’s recent executive action restricting asylum may have been a step in the right direction in limiting the number of illegal aliens crossing the border, but given the sheer volume of encounters reported by Customs and Border Protection, more would need to be done to ensure that foreign nationals with links to terrorist organizations are not entering the country.

Earlier this month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested eight asylum seekers from Tajikistan with suspected ties to the Islamic State. The men all crossed the US southern border at some point over the past year and were cleared by Border Patrol after undergoing criminal background checks.

Morrell and Allison noted that FBI Director Christopher Wray, in multiple appearances before Congressional committees over the past nine months, identified three types of terror threats to the US homeland—international, domestic, and state-sponsored—and warned that the threat from all three were currently elevated.

In their op-ed, Morrell and Allison also noted that in 2023, hundreds of foreign nationals currently on the US terror watch list attempted to enter the United States through the southern border and warned that an individual or group seeking to harm the US could have easily slipped through, hidden among the 2.5 million illegals encountered by Border Patrol last year.

Once in the United States, it would be easy for a foreign terrorist or group of terrorists to purchase the materials needed to carry out a large-scale attack, Morrell and Allison wrote.

The two former US officials noted that several terrorist plots within the US have been foiled in recent years and warned that the vulnerabilities at the southern border could increase the risk that the country could face “a serious threat of a terrorist attack in the months ahead.”