FBI’s Patel says northern border is new terrorism threat

FBI Director Kash Patel told Congress on Wednesday that the southern border has been largely secured, with the threat shifting to the larger and less protected northern boundary that could let terrorists sneak in.

“The enemy has adapted,” Mr. Patel told the House Judiciary Committee. “We need more focus on the northern border to stop known or suspected terrorists from coming in from places like China, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, Afghanistan.”

His comments come after years of concern over the southern border and growing numbers of terrorism suspects — those whose names appear in the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Dataset, usually called the terrorism watch list.

Mr. Patel said the northern border is more troubling because of its “expansive” geography and the ability of adversaries to adapt.

“We’ve encountered almost zero at the southern border since the southern border’s been sealed,” he said. “The problem we are running into is our northern border.”

In fact, the numbers show action at both borders.

From May to July, the Border Patrol tallied 37 arrests of people on the terrorism watch list, according to the latest published data from Customs and Border Protection. That’s a large increase from the rate at the end of the Biden administration and the start of President Trump’s second term.

CBP officers manning the official border crossings have also seen a major surge.

At the southern border, the number on the terror watch list went from fewer than 10 a month at the beginning of this year to more than 500 a month from May to July.

Experts said the change is due to the administration’s decision to add major Mexican cartels to the list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Particularly at the southern border, agents and officers are flagging people who earlier would have crossed without triggering the watch list.

They are largely Mexican.

Mr. Patel appeared on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the panel’s chairman, said Biden administration programs welcomed potential terrorism suspects.

He pointed to the airlift of Afghans, bringing tens of thousands of people out of Kabul as the U.S. withdrew troops and let the Taliban retake control.

Mr. Grassley said U.S. intelligence informed him that it identified 1,600 of those people on whom American authorities had “derogatory” information, including some who were possible terrorism suspects.

Mr. Patel promised a review of the data.

In his testimony, he highlighted Russia, China and Iran as the major focus of the FBI’s counterintelligence operations.

He said the bureau has seen a significant increase in counterintelligence investigations into each of those nations.