Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville has warned that the US could face a Sept. 11-style terrorist attack “every few weeks” due to President Biden’s inaction amid the southern border crisis.
He cited a recent report showing that over a 12-month span ending in September, federal officials apprehended 160 people whose names appear on the FBI’s terror watch list.
“We’re gonna have a 9/11 attack every few weeks if we don’t watch it,” the senator told Newsmax’s Eric Bolling on Monday.
“It is out of control. But this group could care less,” he said of the Biden administration.
He urged US lawmakers to “wake up” when it comes to the crisis at the border.
“I’m up here watching what’s going on and thinking, you know, who cares? Who cares about the American people? Who cares about the taxpayers of this country? I can’t find anybody on both sides of the aisle,” Tuberville added.
“It’s about spending damn money, and I’m sick of it,” he said. “I’m sick of watching what’s going on up here.
The senator also suggested that President Biden should have taken action to protect the southern border following Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
“When that happened, Joe Biden should’ve woke up and called [Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin and said, ‘OK send every available military personnel to the border immediately. Close it down. Nobody else comes in.’”
The number of people on the watch list trying to enter the country through the US’s northern border with Canada and southern border with Mexico has exploded since Pres. Biden took office.
Many have tried to hide among the unprecedented numbers of people arriving at international borders, which included 2.5 million arriving at the border this year, 2.7 million last year and 1.9 million in 2021, according to US Customs and Border Protection, for whom the fiscal year ends in September.
In 2021, only 16 people on the terror watch list were detained at the border. Before that, the numbers were as low as two or six flagged in a whole year.
However, in the last decade the scope of the terror watch list has grown, including people who are associates of those who are threats — including family members of suspected terrorists.
“We expect continued high numbers of migrant encounters over the next year because traditional drivers of migration to the United States remain unchanged and frustration with waiting for legal migration pathways may grow,” the Department of Homeland Security admitted in a recent report.
Still, government officials claim the number of suspects on the terror watch list trying to cross through the border remains low.
“Encounters of known or suspected terrorists attempting to cross the Southern Border are uncommon. These encounters represent significantly less than 0.01% of total encounters per fiscal year in recent years.”