The Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas, is facing backlash for refusing to release the nationality data of suspected terrorists who entered the United States through the Southern border.
Last year, FOX News filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the federal government and asked the DHS to release the nationality data of terror suspects in the Terrorist Screening Dataset.
However, the DHS refused to provide this data, citing national security and migrants’ personal privacy concerns. The agency stated that the government will avoid “divulging information” to protect the identities of individuals and that releasing this information will allow suspected terrorists to change their behavior patterns, which would eventually put national security at risk.
The DHS explanation did not sit well with Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who has now written a letter to grill Mayorkas and asked him to submit the requested nationality data.
In his letter, Cotton wrote that the DHS is hiding the nationalities of terror suspects not because of security concerns but for political reasons, as releasing this data could alarm Americans about the threat they face. Cotton accused Mayorkas of hiding the incompetence of the Biden-Harris administration at the US-Mexico border.
The conservative senator wrote that Americans’ right to know who is entering their country should outweigh the privacy rights of suspected terrorists entering the US illegally.
According to the DHS, if the agency releases the nationality data, it would unnecessarily highlight certain geographical locations, which could help potential terrorists alter their plans and adopt countermeasures against US law enforcement.
Cotton dismissed DHS concerns, claiming that the government can simply deport all the illegal immigrants of every nationality to avoid letting terrorists enter the country in the first place.
Since President Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, nearly 10 million illegal immigrants have entered the US, including many individuals with ties to terror outfits.
Earlier this year, the FBI arrested eight alleged Tajik terrorists who had entered the US from the Southern border and sought asylum in America. When the FBI discovered their ties with the Islamic State, the agency started monitoring their movements to determine if they were part of a larger terror group operating in the United States. The agency ended up arresting all of them after collecting intelligence about their plans to stage at least one terror attack in the US.
In June, the DHS discovered the presence of 400 potential terrorists in the country who had entered the US with the help of an ISIS-affiliated human smuggling group. While law enforcement arrested a large number of these potential terrorists, some still remain at large.
Sen. Cotton has asked the DHS to submit the requested nationality data no later than September 13.
