Legislation demands transparency on potential national security threats illegally crossing US borders

WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, House Committee on Homeland Security Republicans applauded the passage of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) legislation, H.R. 275, the “Special Interest Alien Reporting Act of 2025,” by the House of Representatives. The legislation was first introduced and advanced out of the Committee in the 118th Congress, and the bill was re-introduced by Rep. Greene earlier this year. Watch Rep. Greene’s remarks before the House Committee on Rules here. Watch her remarks on the House floor today here.

H.R. 275 would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to publish every month the number of Special Interest Aliens (SIAs) encountered crossing the border unlawfully, as well as their nationalities. It would also require DHS to publish these statistics retroactive to January 20, 2021. SIAs are non-U.S. persons who, based on an analysis of travel patterns, potentially pose a national security risk to the U.S. or its interests. DHS analysis includes an examination of travel patterns, points of origin, and/or travel segments that are tied to current assessments of national and international threat environments.

Cosponsors of the legislation include Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN), Representative Clay Higgins (R-LA), Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS), Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence Chairman August Pfluger (R-TX), Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Chairman Josh Brecheen (R-OK), and Representative Eli Crane (R-AZ).

“For four years, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris kept the American people in the dark and concealed the alarming number of Special Interest Aliens they allowed into our communities. Amid warnings of Iranian ‘sleeper cells’ on U.S. soil, Americans are faced with the terrifying reality of not knowing how many potential public safety threats have entered our country, and where they are coming from. Even worse, it appears Congress often learns this information from the media, rather than regular reports from the executive branch. That is unacceptable,” Rep. Greene said. “Thankfully, President Trump and his administration are working tirelessly to clean up the mess of the last four years and are swiftly removing many of these threats from our communities––but further transparency is essential as threats grow abroad. I’m grateful that the House passed my bill to make this past-due SIA information available to every American, and I urge the Senate to do the same.”

“The Biden-Harris administration tried to hide that it released more than 700 Iranian nationals—all Special Interest Aliens—into our communities. At a time of heightened threats to the United States from adversaries like Iran and its proxies, the American people deserve to know how many potential national security threats crossed our borders and their countries of origin,” Chairman Green said.“Representative Greene’s bill demands much-needed transparency from DHS, and I’m proud to help pass this bill in the House. I look forward to seeing this bill on President Trump’s desk, and I urge my Senate colleagues to help us get it there without delay.”

“The American people deserve to know the whole truth about who illegally crossed our border under the Biden administration. Representative Greene’s bill delivers transparency and accountability, with mandatory and retroactive reporting on Special Interest Aliens,” Rep. Higgins said. “DHS should absolutely disclose this data. The information is necessary to fully understand the threat environment facing our homeland and to protect the safety and security of America’s citizenry.”

“Congress and the American people deserve to know the number and origins of the Special Interest Aliens who are attempting to cross our borders illegally––and how many have done so in the recent past,” Subcommittee Chairman Guest said. “After the complete lack of accountability and transparency from the Biden-Harris administration, we still do not know the full scale of the threats that may have entered the homeland during their historic border crisis. As threats from adversaries like Iran and China grow, the ‘Special Interest Alien Reporting Act’ will send the message that the days of letting foreign adversaries take advantage of our borders—and Democrats trying to hide the truth—are over.”

“The Biden-Harris administration’s anti-enforcement, open border policies allowed our adversaries to flood our country illegally. This is a massive national security threat that the Trump administration is working to reverse before it’s too late,” Subcommittee Chairman Pfluger said. “Amid a resurgence of foreign terrorist organizations and heightened threats from Iran and its proxies on U.S. soil, the ‘Special Interest Alien Reporting Act’ will bring much-needed transparency following the last four years of failed leadership. It will allow Congress to more effectively work with the Trump administration to combat these threats moving forward.”   
 
“The Biden-Harris administration’s embrace of open-border policies flooded our streets with fentanyl, plagued our communities with criminals, and caused terrorist encounters to skyrocket. Additionally, we saw exponential increases in Special Interest Aliens entering our homeland that now pose a serious long-term risk to our country,” Rep. Crane said. “Many of these foreign nationals operate as military assets, conduct espionage, and present a significant danger to the American people. While we applaud the Trump administration’s all-encompassing approach to remedy the border invasion, Congress needs a steady flow of updated data. Representative Greene’s legislation would directly address information gaps on these potentially dangerous aliens and strengthen congressional oversight. I’m proud to support this sensible measure.”

BACKGROUND:

DHS currently does not publicly publish the number of SIA encounters on its website, despite regularly publishing an even more specific, targeted number—the number of individuals on the terrorist watchlist—among its enforcement statistics. Most of the SIA numbers now public have come from leaks to the press. This bill does nothing to affect operational security or ongoing terrorism investigations. In fact, DHS officials have publicly announced such numbers on occasion.

This week, Fox News revealed the threats caused by the Biden-Harris administration’s open-borders policies: “Per senior CBP source, there were 1,504 Iranian nationals caught crossing the border illegally during the Biden administration from FY’21 through FY’24, 729 (48%) of whom were released into the U.S.” The Committee found through documents provided by the Biden-Harris administration that out of 18 appointments made by Iranian nationals using the CBP mass-parole One app from Jan. 12, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2023, 16 were released on parole––a rate of 88 percent.

According to DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested 130 Iranian national inadmissible aliens this week. Reports indicated that one of the foreign nationals has connections to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah. In testimony before the Committee in May, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem revealed: “Since President Trump has been in office, in these few short months, we have deported over 250 known terrorists out of the country.”

Last Congress, former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke testified: “I was told I could not release any information on this increase in [Special Interest Aliens] or mention any of the arrests. The [Biden] administration was trying to convince the public that there was no threat at the border.” In 2023, Subcommittee Chairman Pfluger asked then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas if DHS under his leadership had a policy to detain every illegal alien on the terrorist watchlist. He did not give a direct answer. 

Under the Biden-Harris administration, an unprecedented number of SIAs from outside the Western Hemisphere, including from adversarial nations including China, Iran, and Russia, illegally crossed America’s sovereign borders. For instance, U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions of Chinese nationals nationwide increased from 342 in FY2021 to 37,976 in FY2024 (and more than 60,000 from FY2021-2024). Record migration flows led to increases in SIAs at the Southwest border, with most SIAs using established routes in Central and South America. In just FY2023, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded roughly 75,000 SIA encounters.

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