America isn't tracking terrorists, the Middle East hates us, and our border is a sieve
If you’re wondering what time it is, it’s time to sober up.
The United States has lost control of its border with Mexico. Record numbers of migrants are pouring into the country just as the world grows more dangerous.
War has now erupted in the Middle East to add to war in eastern Europe, where America is leading the resupply of Ukrainian resistance against the invading Russian Army.
Authoritarian nations China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are banding together and flexing more muscle in their own neighborhoods. On Oct. 7, it was the Iranians’ turn — greenlighting the Hamas terror strike on Israel.
The Arab street is on fire, not just in the Mideast, but in the major cities of western Europe, where lax immigration laws have led to parallel societies in London, Paris and Berlin.
Are terrorists in the US? We don't know
In America, our college campuses have become mind-hives of student radicalism that threaten young Jewish people on their own campuses. Virulent antisemitism is becoming commonplace now, perpetuated by the radical left.
But Goebbels-level antisemitism is also festering on the internet, and much of it has an alt-right signature.
On Tuesday, FBI director Christopher Wray testified that antisemitism has reached “historic levels” and that “the threat from terrorism is as persistent and complex as ever.”
“What has now increased is the greater possibility of one of these foreign terrorist organizations directing an attack in the United States,” Wray said. “It is a time to be concerned. We are in a dangerous period.”
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) asked Wray, “Can you say that we do not have either individual foreign terrorists or terrorist cells affiliated with foreign groups currently operating in the United States?”
“Well, we’re not tracking that,” responded Wray.
Wow.
He went on to explain, “The gaps in our intelligence are real and it’s something we have concerns about."
Our border with Mexico is a sieve
Meanwhile, the U.S.-Mexico border is a sieve.
On Sunday, The New York Times reported that the number of illegal crossings at the border surpassed two million for the second year in a row.
“The 2022 fiscal year set a record of 2.2 million illegal border crossings. These numbers do not include crossings at official checkpoints. Including those, migrant crossings in the 2023 fiscal year hit a record high.”
A new caravan of some 3,000 mostly Venezuelans is headed north across Mexico for the U.S. border, Reuters reported on April 23.
Other reports, including one from Mexico News Daily, estimate the size of that caravan to be closer to 5,000 people.
The U.S.-Mexico border is no longer a left-right issue. It’s a national security imperative. It is in every American’s interest to get control of our southern border, and it serves everyone’s politics to do so.
If you doubt that, if you want laissez faire immigration to continue, understand that one successful mega-terror strike run through our southern border has the potential to lock it down for a generation.
It's time to get control of the border
We are back in that familiar place in which the world hates America. Our support for Israel and its counterstrikes against Hamas in Gaza have made us the bane of the Middle East.
We’re in this up to our eyeballs, with two U.S. carrier strike forces in the eastern Mediterranean.
For every Israeli munition that explodes in Gaza, our enemies blame Israel, and then they blame us.
The changing nature of modern war demands that we get control of the U.S.-Mexico border. More and more rogue states are exploiting the holes in national defenses to wage what is called “hybrid war” with unmarked soldiers who infiltrate territory.
For instance, the Russians used their “Little Green Men” to infiltrate and take over Crimea. The Chinese are using “Little Blue Men” to push Filipino fishermen out of international shipping lanes and seize greater control of the South China Sea.
The Chinese have also been caught infiltrating Taiwan, trying to undermine government and military leadership before its long-expected invasion of the island nation, Reuters reports.
Before Hamas invaded Israel, it exploited Israeli work permits for Gazan laborers to gain “an intimate knowledge of the communities they were targeting,” according to Jewish News Syndicate.
If America’s enemies are infiltrating this country, we should not be surprised if they're using the biggest hole in our national defense – the U.S.-Mexico border.
Biden's double talk: Build the border wall, but walls don't work
We have to get serious about our national defense and foreign policy. If we don’t take control, if we don’t end this 10-year diversion from seriousness in governance and politics, our enemies will continue to exploit it.
We can start with the U.S.-Mexico border. Ours is an immigrant nation that should stay that way.
But it’s also a nation of laws that have been badly trampled. We need to pressure Mexico to stop serving as the migrant highway from Central and South America to the United States.
Congress, Biden cannot ignore this
We need Mexico to crack down on its cartels that now, more than ever, specialize in people smuggling.
We need to tighten our own policies that make it so easy to claim asylum and then meld into the country for years before a court can determine if those claims are legitimate.
And we need to negotiate with Mexico to bring back something as effective as the “Return to Mexico” policy that forced asylum seekers to wait until their claims are validated before gaining entry to the U.S.
We need to know who is coming across that border.
Congress needs to get on top of this.
And so does the Biden White House.
An administration that does not take this issue seriously in such dangerous times will feel the wrath of voters in the next election.
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why our southern border is now a national security threat
