Experts fear Hamas, Hezbollah terrorists are infiltrating US as October sees over 23K 'gotaways'
New concerns that southern border is vulnerable to terrorists
Border security and immigration expert Lora Ries on how the war in Israel has sparked concerns about who could be crossing the U.S. border.
As war rages in the Middle East, concerns about terrorists entering the U.S. are growing as the southern border continues to see a staggering number of "gotaways" under the Biden administration.
"We have to act like the sleeper cells are already here in the U.S. and preemptively find them, and they should be detained," border security and immigration expert Lora Ries told "FOX & Friends" Tuesday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources confirmed to FOX News that there have been more than 23,000 "known gotaways" since the new fiscal year began on Oct. 1, and over 1.5 million since President Biden took office.
On Friday, CBP released a memo obtained by FOX News warning staff that individuals "inspired by, or reacting to, the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle East via circuitous transit across the Southwest border."
The memo specifically mentioned Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hezbollah.
2 IRANIANS WHO 'COULD POSE A SIGNIFICANT SECURITY THREAT' CAPTURED AT US BORDER, SOURCES SAY
Terrorists from Hamas, during an anti-Israel military march in Gaza City. (Yousef Masoud/Majority World/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Ries blamed the Biden administration for "open border" policies potentially attracting bad actors to the U.S.
"Secretary Mayorkas of Homeland Security unfortunately has directed ICE to not arrest, not investigate, not detain a lot of many of the illegal aliens here. And Americans shouldn't wait for a terror attack to happen for the Biden administration to act," she warned.
Thousands of "special interest aliens" from numerous countries, including the Middle East, have been arrested by Border Patrol agents while attempting to cross the U.S. southern border illegally over the last two years, according to internal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data leaked to FOX News.
"Special interest aliens" are people from countries identified by the U.S. government as having conditions that promote or protect terrorism or potentially pose some sort of national security threat to the U.S.
"The American people need to understand we can't really properly vet all these people because some of these countries they come from," Tom Homan told FOX News earlier in the month.
"There are no records. So unless they ran across them on a battlefield, unless there's some sort of technology in that country, a lot of these people from these countries that sponsor terror, we don't know who the hell they are."
Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told "Hannity" Monday there has been a "7,000% increase" in suspects from the terror watch list apprehended in the Biden administration versus the Trump administration, adding they are coming from countries like Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen.
"This operation has been planned by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran for the better part of a year," he said. "They would have already sent their bad actors here. They would have likely taken advantage of an open border under the Biden administration."
"[Mayorkas] was asked whether those terror watch suspects that were apprehended, have been released into the country. And his answer under oath was, I don't know, we don't know where they are. It just really underscores the idiocy of how they have approached this problem," he added.
DHS has also said in the last week that the agency is "closely monitoring unfolding events and will continue to engage in information sharing with our intelligence and law enforcement partners at home and abroad."
"This information sharing helps ensure that we are positioned to help mitigate any risks to national security or public safety," a spokesperson said. "Our multilayered border security efforts include various screening and vetting processes that work to detect and prevent individuals who pose national security or public safety risks from entering the United States."
FOX News' Danielle Wallace, Griff Jenkins, Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin contributed to this report
For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion, and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media
Elizabeth Heckman is a digital production assistant with Fox News.
