WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the House Committee on Homeland Security released a new “Terror Threat Snapshot” assessment, highlighting the persistent terror threat to America, the West, and the world from foreign jihadist networks like ISIS and other terrorists.
 
In particular, cases of foreign jihadist networks and Homegrown Violent Extremists (HVEs) continue to be a serious issue of concern, especially following the Biden-Harris administration’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the attacks on our ally Israel by the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas. In the wake of these events, our wide-open borders and the anti-enforcement policies of the Biden-Harris administration have further emboldened America’s adversaries. 
 
Since April 2021, there have been more than 50 extremism cases in 29 U.S. states from California to New York. Many of these cases involve U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) convictions of individuals, who have provided material support to foreign terrorist organizations like ISIS. Read more in the Washington Times via Ben Wolfgang.

On the assessment, Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) said: 
 
“From the Biden-Harris administration’s chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal and the spillover effects of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks against our ally Israel to the vulnerabilities caused by our wide-open borders, the United States is facing a dynamic and worsening terror threat landscape. Foreign jihadist networks like ISIS and Hizballah, as well as homegrown violent extremists ideologically motivated by these terrorist groups, present security threats to the homeland. The Department of Homeland Security’s mission is to protect the American people from every threat at our doorstep. The system is blinking red yet again, as even the head of the FBI has noted. Despite heightened threats from terrorists, the Biden-Harris administration continues to demonstrate weak leadership on the world stage and fails to admit its policy failures that brought us here. We must change course and take the necessary actions to protect the homeland.”
 
The complete Terror Threat Snapshot is available here. 

Three years out from the Biden-Harris administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, where an Islamic state operative suicide bomber killed 170 people, including 13 U.S. service members, America’s weakness on the world stage has emboldened state sponsors of terrorism, such as Iran.

As geopolitical tensions rise across the globe, and state sponsors of terrorism become emboldened, threats from terrorism are growing. In testimony before the Senate last December, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that in his decades-long career he could not remember a time when so many threats were all “elevated at the exact same time.” He added, “I see blinking lights everywhere I turn.” Director Wray also warned that since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed over a thousand people, threats have reached “a whole ‘nother level.”

Most recently, on September 11, 2024, a Pakistani national with ties to Iran was charged in attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries and murder-for-hire as a part of a scheme to assassinate a politician or U.S. government official on U.S. soil. 

The wide-open Southwest border thanks to President Joe Biden and Vice President and “border czar” Kamala Harris’ open-borders agenda is no doubt contributing to the growing threats facing our nation. Since FY21, 382 individuals on the terrorist watchlist have been apprehended between ports of entry at the Southwest border. There were only 11 of these encounters from FY17-FY20. In addition, roughly two million gotaways have evaded apprehension at the Southwest border, and law enforcement has no way of knowing their intentions. On June 9, 2024, eight Tajikistan nationals with alleged ties to ISIS were arrested in New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. Federal agents tracked the men as they crossed the border and were concerned they could have been plotting a terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

When testifying before the Committee last year, Director Wray confirmed that threats coming across our borders are consuming Joint Terrorism Task Forces in FBI field offices across the country, and the increasing number of individuals on the terror watchlist entering our country is of great concern to him. 

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