The current death toll in Israel from the terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas and Islamic Jihad continues to rise to over 1,400, including over 30 Americans. To put this in perspective, accounting for population that would be the equivalent of more than 50,000 dead Americans here at home. While Israel pounds terrorist targets in Gaza and will later reckon with how their vaunted security apparatus missed such a large, coordinated assault, the lesson for America is simple: if such an attack can happen over there, it can happen right here in our homeland.
The potential seeds for a catastrophic attack on U.S. soil are rooted in the Biden Administration’s unyielding determination to open our borders to mass unchecked migration. For example, in just the month of August, the U.S. Border Patrol reported a record 304,162 illegal migrant encounters, breaking the previous record set in December 2022. That’s a population larger than Portland and Bangor combined and roughly equal to all of Cumberland County.
It is estimated that over the last three years, a record 1.7 million migrants entered the U.S. illegally without any contact with federal authorities, a population in excess of 11 U.S. states, including Maine. These so called “gotaways” are migrants from countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Sudan, and many more. In short, we have no idea who these people are, where they are, or what they are doing. This is on top of the millions of other migrants the administration has knowingly released into the country, tens of thousands of which are designated by the Department of Homeland Security as “special interest aliens”, i.e., young adult males from nations with a history of terrorism.
Even more alarming, there has been a steep rise in the number of arrests at the border of migrants on the terrorist watch list. In federal fiscal year 2023, there were 151 apprehensions of such migrants, the largest number ever recorded, and 98 in 2022, (the previous record), compared to 15 in 2021, just three in 2020, and zero in 2019. Given the certainty the Border Protection does not encounter them all, the potential number of terrorist gotaways is the most alarming statistic of all.
On top of the broken border, after the debacle that was the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden Administration left $7 billion worth of military weapons and hardware behind to be used and sold by the Taliban. Of course, there are reports coming out of Israel that some of these weapons may have been used by Hamas. And one must not forget the Biden Administration just awarded, as part of a prisoner swap, $6 billion to the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism, Iran, a country that likely played a role in the attack against Israel.
Meanwhile, as the Biden Administration funds and arms terrorist states, and the enforcement of U.S. immigration law collapses, the president has federal security agencies fixated on domestic violent extremists, a.k.a., MAGA Republicans, under the false pretense they represent an existential threat to democracy. No matter how hard the administration tries to bang away at this narrative, the fact remains that groups like al-Qaeda, ISIS, and their supporters remain the number one terrorism threat to our nation. Those groups have pledged to acquire and use nuclear weapons, and while that may be unlikely for now, they have a determination and patience we ignore at our peril.
Fixing these challenges will not be easy and time is our enemy. A few obvious steps include immediately halting the asylum process and later reinstating the remain in Mexico policy for all asylum seekers, ending the practice of catching and releasing illegal migrants into the country, finishing the border wall, further enlisting state and local law enforcement to secure the border and enforce immigration law in the interior, isolating Iran through stiff sanctions, and refocusing counter terrorism efforts on al-Qaeda, ISIS, and their ilk. Following that, Congress must reform immigration law to deter mass migration and fund border security and immigration enforcement operations at a level commensurate with the challenge. Even with all these actions and more, it is possible the seeds of the next catastrophic terrorist attack against our homeland have already been sown.
Joshua D. Filler is an attorney and homeland security consultant living in Falmouth. He served in the cabinet of the Mayor of New York on 9/11, as director of local affairs at the White House Office of Homeland Security from 2002 to 2003, and as director of the Office of State and Local Coordination at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005 where he oversaw the creation of Operation Stonegarden, a joint federal, state, and local border security program.
The Biden Crime Family open borders policy aids & abets the efforts of the drug trafficking & human trafficking cartels responsible for the overdose murders of 100,000 Americans annually.
The FBI & corrupt media propaganda outlets avoid providing Americans with information concerning the magnitude of crimes committed by illegal aliens.
Americans are told that illegal aliens can’t receive welfare, but in fact they do receive hundreds of billions in welfare & public services to the detriment of American Citizens!
Your column is 100% on target, anyone with the most basic knowledge of security understands just how vulnerable Biden’s backwards poorly thought out policies expose the American public to potential attacks. Biden needs to start living up to his oath of office and protect our borders and people.
Biden and the Democrats will as always , just blame Trump, and all those suffering from TDS, will fall in line
This headline should be in large bold print. Terrorist have and are still entering our country through our Southern border. They are entering for one simple reason. Because the Democrats want them to.
Ever think about all of the overwhelming distractions that are eating at out society the last 3 years. All the various battles conservatives are continually fighting. Well there is a master plan forming as we are all distracted by all the insane mismanagement of our government.
Our government and the one world order crowd cannot use covid again as that was only to defeat Trump and bring citizens to obedience school. Is it possible that the hammer is going to pound in 2024 election year through mass events of destruction through terrorism and migrant disruption to our way of life? Will our government conveniently declare emergency powers way beyond than what they gave themselves in the aftermath of 911? Will elections could be postponed if it’s certain the democrats are going to lose?
Now this all sounds like a crazed madman proposing such insanity but would you put such dastardly planning and implementation past the Democrats and the one world order crowd simply to remain in power? I could go on but ask yourself, is there a master plan being implemented through all the lies, the mass confusion of gender, the dangerous excessive mass migration, the struggles caused by inflation, insane racism to divide us that is being slyly planted in our youth, political persecution of opponents, double standards in the enforcement of laws, media supporting the government narrative, a president who is only a shell as a figurehead. So many distractions to boggle the mind.
Is there a master plan being set up by the ones in power as we are all distracted and focused on fighting various insane battles without resolution.
How many possibilities or truths has our government discredited through the heavily compromised media. Is this just as another insane conspiracy theory? What I shared may not happen but would you put it past whoever is actually running our government?
Remember, these people in charge are no longer guided by a foundation of faith but by whatever personal thinking they might hold following the direction of the wind.
The fact is no one really knows the number of illegals who have entered the U.S. under OBiden. Some estimates are as high as 8 million with 5 million being military aged men. Also, $7 billion is an extremely low figure for the amount of military hardware left behind in Afghanistan. That number should be @ $85 billion. Whatever the estimates, our open borders are a disaster.
Few are talking about the elephant in the room after Hamas butchered innocent Israeli citizens. They’re not terrorists, militants, fundamentalists or radicals; they’re Islamic jihadists and nothing else. The granting of 20,000 work permits for “Palestinians” to enter Israel had been deliberately pushed by the Biden administration and the Leftist Lapid Party in Israel. The “workers” (jihadists) scoped out their targets, befriended the locals and then returned to murder them simply because they were Jews. See Daniel Greenfield’s article on “Israel’s Work Permits for Gaza”.
Come up with every excuse in the book for what happened but this barbarism is not new. Muhammad’s claim to be a prophet was rejected by the Jewish tribes in Mecca which is why they became a historical target for 1,400 years. In fact, 9% of the text in the Quran, Sira and Hadith is devoted to anti-Jewish language while Mein Kamph is less @ 7%. (Btw, Hitler hated religion but admired the warrior spirit of Islam)
It is not a matter of IF, but WHEN we will have another major religiously motivated Islamic attack thanks in part to the refugee resettlement agencies such as Catholic Charities and Leftist enablers who hate our foundational Judeo-Christian values. Why wouldn’t that be the case? We’ve already forgotten and made the requisite excuses about 9/11.