Known and suspected terrorists are entering the United States in unprecedented numbers amid a surge in illegal immigration, according to Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.).
In an interview with NTD, sister media outlet of The Epoch Times, the Louisiana representative said the Biden administration was providing “absurd” figures on the actual number of known and suspected terrorists entering America through its borders.
Higgins, a decorated law enforcement officer, said he believed the number to be much higher, in part owing to the number of suspected terrorists who have aggressively avoided interaction with law enforcement at the border, referred to as “got-aways.”
Higgins’s comments come after Border Patrol agents captured 50 people who were on the FBI’s terror watchlist from October 2021 to May 2022.
That figure was just 15 in the fiscal year 2021, which included several months under former President Donald Trump’s administration.
“Toward the end of last year [2021], I had estimated that we had lost about 250 KSTs, known and suspected terrorists, so the total numbers now that we’re told could serve about 700,000 ‘got-aways’ are suspected to have crossed into America. I think that’s a low number,” Higgins said.
“From my perspective, with data delivered to me by boots on the ground, from the border and from Central America and Mexico, and from the official numbers that are delivered to Congress from official data collection processes with Customs and Border Patrol, I think it’s reasonable for Americans to sort of step back and say, ‘My God, we have somewhere between 500 and 1,000 known and suspected terrorists [who] have entered into our country across our southern border since President [Joe] Biden has been inaugurated into office.’ This should startle every American citizen regardless of political affiliation.”
‘Conservative Numbers’
Explaining why he believes the actual number of suspected terrorists in the United States could be higher, Higgins pointed to Biden’s administration, which he said is using “conservative numbers” when it comes to estimating how many there are.
