Members of Congress demanded answers Wednesday after reports that eight people associated with ISIS had to be recaptured after first being caught and released at the border.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked Senate leaders to rush to schedule an all-senators briefing on the matter, saying the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria poses an ever-growing threat at the southern border.
“I believe that the threat is urgent,” Mr. Graham wrote.
And House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, Tennessee Republican, said the arrests are the latest flashing warning sign about the “madness” at the border under President Biden.
“Such bad actors exploiting our borders used to be the exception — it’s quickly becoming the rule,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time before one of these individuals connected to a terrorist group is involved in something devastating on U.S. soil, and this administration will be responsible.”
The eight men, all from Tajikistan, crossed the border, where they were encountered by U.S. authorities. They were given some vetting, which apparently came back clean, and they were released and dispersed into the country.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recaptured them in operations in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia.
Authorities appear to have had some of the migrants under surveillance and The New York Post reported they had a wiretap running that detected one of the men talking about bombs.
ICE is now holding the migrants on immigration cases. They are not currently charged with any terrorism-related crime.
One of the men is reported to have been granted “parole” by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas under a special immigration program he set up outside the usual immigration system for migrants who pre-schedule their unauthorized arrivals.
The cases challenge Mr. Mayorkas’ claim that those showing up are being thoroughly vetted.
Homeland Security agents and officers say the crush of people is too high to do serious vetting, and they have to rely on the names migrants give, even if they suspect the names are bogus.
Beyond that, the databases the names are checked against are generally comprised of U.S. records, so if someone’s criminal history is in their home country or terrorist activity hasn’t attracted the attention of the U.S. government or its partners, a migrant wouldn’t be flagged.
Tajikistan is generally not a large player in the illegal immigration sphere. ICE reported deporting just four people back to the country in fiscal year 2023.
But the U.S. has seen a stunning rise in migrants from beyond the usual sending areas of Mexico and Central America, which experts attribute in part to pressures in other countries and to the generous use of parole and other catch-and-release measures by the Biden administration.
It’s not clear whether any of the eight men triggered the terrorism watchlist.
Mr. Mayorkas has been reluctant to say publicly whether a migrant who sneaks across the border and appears on the watchlist means automatic detention.
But the number of people on the watchlist detected while trying to sneak across the southern border has soared from 11 in the four years from 2017 to 2020 to 362 since Mr. Biden took office in 2021.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.