A bombshell interim staff report from the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement reveals the extent to which President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released migrants on the government’s “terrorist watchlist” into the United States.
Since the start of 2021, when Biden and Harris took office, the DHS has imposed an expansive Catch and Release network that seeks to funnel thousands of migrants into American communities daily as they await deportation hearings.
The subcommittee’s interim staff report details how the DHS, from fiscal years 2021 to 2023, released migrants on the federal government’s terrorist watchlist — a database that lists those foreign nationals directly involved in terrorism and those who have a nexus to terrorism — into the U.S.
The report states:
Under the Biden-Harris administration, of the more than 250 illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist who were encountered by Border Patrol at the southwest border between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, DHS has released into American communities at least 99, with at least 34 others in DHS custody but not yet removed from the United States.
It continues:
Between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, Border Patrol at the southwest border encountered aliens on the terrorist watchlist from 36 different countries, including places with an active terrorist presence such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Yemen. [Emphasis added]
So far during fiscal year 2024, Border Patrol has encountered tens of thousands of illegal aliens nationwide from countries that could present national security risks, including 2,134 Afghan nationals, 33,347 Chinese nationals, 541 Iranian nationals, 520 Syrian nationals, and 3,104 Uzbek nationals. [Emphasis added]
In June, reports circulated that federal agents had arrested eight Tajikistani migrants linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) after they crossed the southern border into the U.S.
According to the subcommittee’s interim staff report, three of those ISIS-linked migrants had been released into the U.S. interior after using the Biden-Harris administration’s “CBP One” app to schedule appointments for release at the southern border.
Four of the ISIS-linked migrants had crossed the border, and one had arrived at a Port of Entry and was subsequently released into the U.S. interior.
“The open-borders policies of President Joe Biden and border czar Vice President Kamala Harris have allowed millions of illegal aliens to enter the United States, including terrorist organizations and other bad actors looking to harm Americans,” the report states.
Federal immigration judges are also implicated in the report, which alleges that at least 27 migrants on the terrorist watchlist had been allowed to bond out of DHS detention from fiscal years 2021 through 2023.
“Additionally, immigration judges granted asylum to at least four watchlisted aliens, with at least two additional known or suspected terrorists having their cases terminated by an immigration judge,” the report states.
The report similarly details the case of Mohammad Kharwin, a 48-year-old Afghan national and member of the terrorist group Hezb-e-Islami, whom federal agents arrested in April after he had been twice released into the U.S. interior.
Kharwin first crossed the southern border in March 2023 and was released that month into the U.S. interior by the DHS. In March 2024, after having been taken into federal custody, he was allowed to bond out of detention.
Not until reports exposed the case the following month was Kharwin rearrested.
“In three-and-a-half years, the Biden-Harris administration has released more than 5.4 million illegal aliens into the United States, with an additional at least 1.9 million known ‘gotaways’ escaping into the country,” the report states.
“Among those more than 7.3 million illegal aliens are 375 illegal aliens on the U.S. government’s terrorist watchlist who have been apprehended by Border Patrol under President Biden’s and Vice President Harris’s watch,” the report continues. “That is a more than 3,000 percent increase of watchlisted alien encounters compared to all four years of the Trump administration.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
