My Counterterrorism Magazine Piece On The Wide Array Of National Security Threats Coming From The Porous Southern Border

The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International published my piece on the national security threats coming from the Southern Border.

You can read the piece via the below or the below text:

The Wide Array of National Security Threats Coming

From the Porous Southern Border 

By Paul Davis

Border security is one of the hot topics during this year’s contentious presidential election. Among the illegal aliens crossing the border illegally looking for a better life, there are drug smugglers, gang members, and other criminals. There are also suspected terrorists crossing the border illegally.

Eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to ISIS were arrested by ICE agents in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York City on and before June 11^th. The suspects crossed into the United States from the southern border in 2023.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security released a statement on the arrests: "Over the last few days, ICE agents arrested several non-citizens pursuant to immigration authorities. The actions were carried out in close coordination with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The individuals arrested are detained in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. As the FBI and DHS have recently described in public and partner bulletins, the U.S. has been in a heightened threat environment. The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security." 

Back on March 11^th, FBI Director Christopher Wray and other intelligence leaders testified at the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence during the annual Worldwide Threats Assessment hearing. 

The other intelligence leaders testifying about worldwide threats were Avril D. Haines from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, William J. Burns, the director of the CIA, Brett M. Holmgren, the State Department assistant secretary for intelligence and research, Timothy D. Haugh, the director of the NSA/CSS, and Jeffrey A. Kruse, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. 

In FBI Director Wray’s testimony, he spoke of border security threats such as drug trafficking.:59

"We have had dangerous individuals entering the United States," Wray told the U.S. Senators. "We are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border. The FBI alone seized enough fentanyl in the last two years to kill 270 million people."

The FBI Wray stated there is no doubt that criminals have entered the United States at the southern border but knew of no specific plot.

"Some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have ties with ISIS that we're very concerned about, and we've been spending an enormous amount of effort with our partners investigating," Wray said.

He noted that there are threats from a variety of dangerous groups.

"Even before October 7, I would have told this committee that we were at a heightened threat level from a terrorism perspective that I've not seen in a long, long time," he said. "The threats from homegrown violent extremists that is jihadist-inspired, extremists, domestic violent extremists, foreign terrorist organizations, and state-sponsored terrorist organizations all being elevated at one time since October 7, though, that threat has gone to a whole other level. And so, this is a time I think for much greater vigilance, maybe been called upon us," he said.

FBI Director Wray was questioned by the Vice Chairman, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence during the annual Worldwide Threats Assessment hearing.

 

RUBIO: Director Wray, we know that over the last three years, millions of people have crossed the U.S. border illegally, and many have been released into the country. Have people with ties to dangerous gangs – like, for example, the prison gang Tren de Aragua from Venezuela – were they among the people that came into this country?

 

WRAY: I don’t know that I can speak to the specific gang, but certainly we’ve had dangerous individuals enter the United States of a variety of sorts.

 

RUBIO: Are we seeing crimes from people that entered the country over the last three years, some of them with ties to gangs or other criminal organizations?

 

WRAY: I would say this from an FBI perspective: we are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border, and that includes drug trafficking. The FBI alone seized enough fentanyl in the last two years to kill 270 million people. That’s just on the fentanyl side. An awful lot of the violent crime in the United States is at the hands of gangs, who are themselves involved in the distribution of that fentanyl.

 

RUBIO: But we’re also seeing local law enforcement tracking members of Tren de Aragua in particular. For example, the assault on the police officers in New York. All the reporting said they had ties to this gang in particular. There’s no doubt that people that were criminals in their country of origin have crossed that border and are now in the U.S. committing crimes. 

 

WRAY: Correct. 

 

RUBIO: Is there now a black market emerging to sell fake Social Security cards, fake green cards. Have you seen reporting on that?

 

WRAY: On the darknet, for example, there is a significant marketplace for different kinds of stolen identities. 

 

RUBIO: What about in the street?

 

WRAY: I think so.

 

RUBIO: There are smuggling networks all over the world that specialize in moving people from all over the world, including from the Middle East, Central Asia, and so forth. Are we aware that any of these smuggling organizations are run or conducted by people that have ties, for example, to ISIS or other terrorist organizations?

 

WRAY: I want to be a little bit careful about how far I can go in an open session. But there is a particular network where some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have ISIS ties that we’re very concerned about, and that we’ve been spending an enormous amount of effort with our partners to investigate. Exactly what that network is up to is something that is, again, the subject of our current investigation.

 

RUBIO: There is a network we’re concerned about that has facilitators involved in it that have ties to ISIS and other terrorist organizations. 

 

WRAY: Correct. 

According to the 2024 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) are the dominant producers and suppliers of illicit drugs to the U.S. market.

“Illicit fentanyl will continue to pose a major threat to the health of Americans. In 2023, a majority of the more than 100,000 annual drug overdose deaths in the United States are attributed to illicit fentanyl mostly supplied by Mexican-based TCOs, even as U.S. law enforcement seized record amounts of illicit fentanyl, precursor chemicals, and pill pressing equipment,” the Threat assessment noted. 

“Mexico-based TCOs are the dominant producers of illicit fentanyl for the U.S. market, although there also are independent illicit fentanyl producers, and the fragmentation of fentanyl operations has made disruption efforts challenging. Some aspects of fentanyl production are spilling over into the United States with drug traffickers conducting the finishing stages of fentanyl pill packing or pressing in the United States. China remains the primary source for illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals and pill pressing equipment. 

“Brokers circumvent international controls through mislabeled shipments and the purchase of unregulated dual-use chemicals. However, Mexico-based TCOs also are sourcing precursor chemicals to a lesser extent from other nations such as India. Money Laundering and Financial Crimes TCOs are defrauding individuals, businesses, and government programs, while laundering billions. Human Trafficking TCOs and criminal actors view human trafficking, including sex trafficking and forced labor, as low risk crimes of opportunity. Multiple criminal actors engage in operations that seek to exploit vulnerable individuals and groups to bolster illicit revenue streams. The TCOs that engage in human trafficking may also engage in drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, human smuggling, and money laundering. 

The assessment also stated that human traffickers typically coerce or defraud their victims into sex trafficking or forced labor, confiscating identification documents and requiring the payment of debts. 

“In 2023, U.S. law enforcement officials noted multiple incidents where unaccompanied minors were exploited in forced labor operations in U.S. food processing plants to pay off debts. TCOs based in the Western Hemisphere and Asia are most likely to engage in human trafficking activity with ties to the United States. Migrants transiting the Western Hemisphere to the United States are exploited by criminal actors through kidnapping for ransom, targets of forced labor, or victims of sex trafficking operations. TCOs, human smugglers, gangs, and lone criminal actors are all taking advantage of elevated levels of U.S.-bound migration, and vulnerable migrants are at risk of being trafficked. Some migrants, who voluntarily use human smuggling networks to facilitate their travel to the United States, are trafficked during their journey.”

 

While elected government officials and those seeking office differ on how best to secure the southern border, all agree that there are major dangerous criminals and terrorists crossing the border. 

Paul Davis, who writes the online Threatcon column, is a longtime Journal contributor.