The assertion made by Trump about terrorists crossing the southern border lacks substantial evidence.
Talking about the US southern border, Trump declared that "more terrorists have entered the United States in the past three years. And I suspect possibly over 50 years."
As we approach the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 tragedies, this statement appears peculiar given that 19 Arab hijackers, none of whom had illegally crossed the southern border into the US, claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 individuals, most of whom were in Trump's hometown of New York City.
If Trump's assertion were true that jihadist terrorists were flooding into the US through the southern border during the past three years, wouldn't we have seen some terrorist attacks occur in the US? Or, at the very least, an increase in terrorists being apprehended within the US during that time frame?
Actually, there haven't been any reported terrorist attacks in the US by jihadist terrorists crossing the southern border during the past three years.
In fact, the most recent lethal terrorist attack perpetrated by a jihadist terrorist took place while Trump was in office in 2019. A Saudi military officer took the lives of three American sailors at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, and had entered the US legally as part of a Pentagon training program.
On the other hand, during the past three years, 22 people have been killed in the US by far-right domestic terrorists in places such as Buffalo, New York, and Allen, Texas, according to data gathered by New America, a research institution (where I am a vice president.)
Trump tends to be relatively silent when far-right domestic terrorists enact violence in the US.
During the Fox town hall, Trump also claimed that there had been no instances of "radical Islamic terror" while he was in office. However, the Pensacola terrorist attack occurred while Trump was in power, and an ISIS-inspired terrorist carried out an attack in Manhattan in 2017, killing eight people using a truck as a weapon.
The so-called "terrorists crossing the southern border" narrative is a revised version of Trump's call for a Muslim ban during the 2016 election campaign. It merged American fears of immigration with their fears of terrorism, a fear that remained prominent in many Americans' minds following the 9/11 attacks.
It's worth noting that there are valid concerns about the southern border. For example, as reported by CNN in June, eight Tajikistan nationals who had crossed the southern border were arrested on immigration charges following potential ties to terrorism, possibly linked to ISIS. However, there was no evidence that these individuals were planning a terrorist attack.
Also, FBI director Christopher Wray testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee last year that "we are in a heightened threat environment due to foreign terrorist organizations, and their ability to exploit any port of entry, including our southwest border... We have seen an increase in so-called KSTs, ‘known or suspected terrorists,’ attempting to cross over the last five years."
According to the US Customs and Border Protection's most recent statistics, there have been 43 encounters with individuals on the terrorism watchlist on the southern border so far in 2024. Additionally, Customs and Border Protection had 281 encounters with people on the terrorism watchlist on the US border with Canada, despite six times more people on the terrorism watchlist attempting to cross the Canadian border this year.
Being on the terrorism watchlist doesn't necessarily mean that someone is a terrorist; CBS News reported that there are around two million people on the list.
Trump's assertion that "more terrorists have entered the United States in the past three years. And I suspect possibly over 50 years" and his claim that there was no Islamist terrorism in the US during his four-year term are quite far from the truth. However, given past trends, it's likely that Trump will continue to make similar claims during the final weeks of the election campaign.
Despite the 9/11 tragedies being linked to 19 hijackers who entered the US legally, not illegally through the southern border, the topic of politics often brings up concerns about border security. In recent years, there have been encounters with individuals on the terrorism watchlist at the US-Mexico border, as reported by Customs and Border Protection.
