DHS Pattern of Releasing Suspected Terrorists Threatening U.S. Military Bases, Critical Infrastructure

Under the Biden administration the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a pattern of releasing suspected terrorists at the southwest border resulting in national security risks that include threats to U.S. military installations and critical infrastructure, a congressional committee affirms. Federal lawmakers reveal that since Biden took office the U.S. Border Patrol has encountered at least 351 illegal aliens on the Terrorist Screening Data Set coming into the country between ports of entry. Among them are two Jordanian nationals who recently attempted to breach a military base not far from the nation’s capital. The men drove a truck to the main gate of Marine Corps Base Quantico earlier this month and ignored guards’ orders to stop when they could not provide credentials required to gain access to the facility. The Virginia base is about 35 miles south of Washington D.C.

Now the House Homeland Security Committee, established nearly two decades ago to ensure that the American people are protected from terrorist attacks, is investigating the matter and demanding action from administration officials charged with safeguarding the nation, including the secretaries of Homeland Security (Alejandro Mayorkas) and Defense (Lloyd Austin) as well as FBI Director Christopher Wray. In a letter to the Biden officials, high-ranking committee members including chairman Mark Green of Tennessee, ask for documents and other pertinent information to aid in their investigation into threats posed by foreign nationals to U.S. military bases and other critical infrastructure. That includes communications such as text messages and electronic mail between DHS, DOD and the FBI related to the May 3 incident at Marine Corps Base Quantico, documents to identify the names and countries of origin of the truck’s occupants and their current alien file. The committee also wants files with all derogatory information in the Terrorist Screening Data Set associated with any individual who attempted to breach the military compound and all files containing notes from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and prosecutors referring to the individuals involved.

The attempted breach at the Marine Corps base reflects a possibly more dire reality for the state of U.S. national security, the committee members write, adding recent congressional testimony delivered by the FBI director. “As Director Wray stated in a recent Senate hearing, ‘a wide array of very dangerous threats . . . emanate from the border, requiring ‘much greater vigilance’ to protect the country.” The legislators point out that DHS’s relaxed vetting standards, which complement Biden’s avowed desire to surge the border with inadmissible migrants, have created an environment ripe for exploitation by individuals aiming to undermine the United States at its most critical points. “If individuals on the terrorist watchlist are so emboldened to attempt to breach a Marine Corps base, the Department of Homeland Security and the entire executive branch must act swiftly to identify, apprehend, and detain such hostile actors on American soil,” the letter states.

The recent incident in Virginia appears to be part of a broader security issue involving U.S. military bases and foreign intruders. Less than a year ago a mainstream newspaper published an alarming exposé involving Chinese nationals, sometimes posing as tourists, accessing military bases and other sensitive U.S. sites as many as 100 times. In the story U.S. officials, from agencies such as the FBI and DOD, describe the incidents as espionage threats designed to test security practices at U.S. military installations and other federal sites. Examples include Chinese nationals—required to report back to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—crossing into a U.S. missile range in New Mexico to scuba divers swimming in murky waters near a U.S. government rocket-launch facility in Florida. The same Homeland Security Committee also initiated an investigation into the Chinese breaches after learning about them in the media. In a September 2023 letter to Mayorkas, Wray and Austin, the committee points out that the “persistent and multi-faceted threats posed by the CCP to U.S. homeland security have only intensified under the Biden-Harris administration.”