In October 2018, President Trump stated foreign nationals from Middle Eastern companies were entering the county illegally along with Hondurans. He said they “could very well” include Islamic terrorists and that U.S. Border Patrol has intercepted “some real bad ones.” It is a real problem that continues since the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Due to our lack of enforcement of immigration laws, thousands of illegal immigrants from countries that sponsor terrorism live in the U.S. The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) claimed over 10,000. All of them have been ordered deported or have pending deportation orders. Some of them may have come into the country legally, but they committed crimes which prompted the deportation orders. Authorities do not catch the vast majority of illegal immigrants who make it into the country.

Iranians

6,000 Iranians live in the U.S. This is the largest number of Iranians outside of Iran. Congress held hearings recently where it came up that there are Iranian sleeper cells in the U.S. They are just waiting for instructions. The Obama administration stated in 2015 that Iran “remained the foremost state sponsor of terrorism.”

The rest of the 10,000 immigrants from countries that sponsor terrorism include 20 percent from Syria and 18 percent from Sudan. Less than one percent come from North Korea. 

IRLI Executive Director Dale Wilcox told Breitbart, “We saw on 9/11 the damage that only 19 sleeper cell terrorists could cause.” He bemoaned sanctuary laws, which prevent dangerous terrorists from being deported. ICE has only deported 44 known or suspected terrorists illegally in the country in the past two fiscal years. And with its sanctuary city policies, California is complicating things.

Terrorists Caught

The Center for Immigration Studies tracked some of the foreign nationals prosecuted for terrorism. Authorities prosecuted one for lying to the FBI about his ties to terrorism. They prosecuted a second one for providing material support to a terrorist group. A third made it to Canada, where he was tried on multiple attempted murder counts. Since 2001, 15 suspected terrorists have been caught at the U.S.-Mexico border or en route to it.

The CIS report notes that it doesn’t even include all incidents. Much of that kind of data is not subject to public disclosure. Authorities catch roughly 3,000 “special interest alien” migrants from countries of interest each year at the southern border. However, this does not include those that evade detection or who haven’t been placed on a watch list yet.

For every illegal immigrant caught at the border, several more make it through undetected. Radical Islamists in Mexico are changing their names to Hispanic surnames to make it easier to cross the border.

Not Just the Southern Border

Not all terrorists come into the U.S. by way of the southern border. The CATO Institute found that six foreign nationals convicted of plotting terrorist attacks on U.S. soil came illegally through Canada or shipping ports.

Illegal immigrants aren’t the only problem. The Diversity Visa Lottery imports over 50,000 foreign nationals into the country every year using a random drawing. It has brought in nearly 30,000 legal immigrants over the past 10 years from countries that sponsor terrorism.

President Trump said recently that he is considering releasing illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities. There, authorities prevent local officials from cooperating with federal law enforcement. It will have the result of steering terrorists to those locations.

Follow Rachel on Twitter at Rach_IC. Send tips to rachel.alexander@stream.flywheelstaging.com.