Top Senate Republicans demand answers from Mayorkas after suspected ISIS terrorists released into US at border
Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., led a group of 21 senators in a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to demand answers after people with suspected ties to ISIS were apprehended at the southern border, vetted and then released into the United States.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently arrested eight people after one was reportedly caught on a wiretap talking about bombs.
"President Biden is derelict in his duty to protect and defend our country," Budd said in a statement. "These incidents highlight the extreme national security risks posed by the open southern border. We need to expose what happened here, and make sure it never happens again. We need to secure the border and stop the chaos."
In the letter that was sent to Mayorkas on Tuesday morning, Budd and the other senators expressed concerns over reports of the arrests of eight people from Tajikistan suspected to have terror ties to ISIS who crossed the southern border to enter the U.S. last year and this year.
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"We are deeply concerned by reports that a wiretap shows that one of the now-arrested individuals was talking about bombs and that the target of the wiretap was previously released by federal authorities at the southern border with a court date of next year," the letter reads. "We are further concerned by reports that federal authorities vetting these individuals upon entry into the U.S. did not detect any ties to ISIS at the time and only discovered these ties "[l]ater and in recent weeks."
The letter also details other recent releases of illegal immigrants on the terrorist watch list into the U.S.
It also highlights a November 2023 hearing where FBI Director Christopher Wray said, "There are certainly individuals who are the subject of terrorism investigations that we are searching for."
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Due to the nature of the threats to the American public, the senators requested that DHS brief the senators or their staff and answer several questions by June 25.
The senators are requesting that Mayorkas release the identities of all the arrested individuals, explain when, where and why they entered the U.S., and if they claimed asylum when they entered the U.S.
They are also requesting that they explain what the vetting process included for these individuals, answer if they are part of ISIS or another terrorist group, and are they part of a broader network inside the U.S.
They also are requesting that DHS tell them if they were planning a terrorist attack and if they possessed any weapons.
This letter comes a week after Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., sent a similar letter to Wray to demand answers on how the eight Tajikistan nationals — who crossed the border illegally and were later arrested in three major American cities — had been released into the U.S. interior in the first place.
The senator wrote that he and Wray shared "the same concern about suspected terrorists and watch-list subjects crossing the border."
"Last week, I questioned FBI Director Wray regarding steps the FBI is taking to protect Americans from terrorists illegally crossing the southern border," Moran wrote. "I appreciate the FBI’s work to track down these eight potential terrorists, but the fact of the matter is, the Biden administration should never have allowed these suspected terrorists onto U.S. soil in the first place. The disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and a defenseless border has left our country vulnerable to attack."
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Wray warned the Senate Appropriations' subcommittee during a meeting last week that since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, a "rogue gallery of foreign terrorist organizations" have been calling for attacks on Americans, the U.S. and U.S. allies.
"And given those calls for action, our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw a twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home," Wray said. "But now, on top of that, increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, not unlike the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russian concert hall back in March."
The letter authored by Sen. Budd was co-signed by Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., John Thune, R-S.D., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Steve Daines, R-Mont., Tim Scott, R-S.C., JD Vance, R-Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Rick Scott, R-Fla., Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Mike Lee, R-Utah, Roger Marshall, R-Kan., John Hoeven, R-N.D., John Kennedy, R-La., Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., Todd Young, R-Ind., Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Pete Ricketts, R-Neb.
Fox News Digital's Danielle Wallace and Julia Johnson contributed to this report.