FBI Director Christopher Wray has expressed concerns about known or suspected terrorists using fake identification to enter the United States through the southern border.
What Happened: Wray, during a hearing with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, highlighted the use of fake IDs by terrorists as a significant issue for the national intelligence community.
“There are a few different categories of people that we have concerns about,” Wray said.
“When a known or suspected terrorist, as in known that they’re a known or suspected terrorist is apprehended at the border, I’m confident in the vast majority of instances there’s very close lash-up between FBI and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) on it.
“The bigger concern is a situation, for example, where somebody presents fake identification documents at the border and there’s not biometrics to match up—so there’s no way to be able to know that they’re not who they say they are. Then, they get into the country; then somehow we find out that they’re someone in fact who’s on the list.”
Wray also noted an increase in the number of known or suspected terrorists attempting to cross the southern border over the past five years.
Why It Matters: Wray’s comments come in the wake of former President Donald Trump‘s intensified immigration rhetoric. Last week, Trump accused President Joe Biden of plotting to overthrow the American system through his border policies.
The issue of illegal immigration and its potential security risks has been a point of contention in U.S. politics. Trump’s accusations against Biden and his administration’s immigration policies have been echoed by other prominent figures, including Elon Musk, who raised concerns about the national security implications of unvetted illegal immigrants.
Musk also criticized the legal immigration process as“bizarrely difficult and agonizingly slow,” suggesting that this could be contributing to the influx of unvetted immigrants.
Meanwhile, Biden and Trump visited the southern border last week, sparking a heated debate over immigration. Biden used the opportunity to call for a bipartisan border bill, urging Trump to join him in lobbying Congress for its passage.
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