Speaking in San Diego to the International Association of Chiefs of Police on Oct. 14, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that, after the Islamic terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel, the United States needed to remain on high alert.
Wray said the FBI has seen an increase in reported threats. He advised citizens “to be on the lookout,” especially from lone actors who may be inspired by the Middle East warfare to commit violence on their own initiative.
Online anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim posts have increased dramatically. New York, home to 1.3 million Jews — the largest Jewish population outside of Israel — has emerged as an epicenter for hate.
The following Sunday evening, during a 60 Minutes interview, President Joe Biden concurred with Wray that the Hamas war against Israel precipitates a greater likelihood of a terrorist attack on the homeland.
Biden said that, after conferring with FBI and Homeland Security Department officials, he was confident a major effort has been made to deter terrorists and to dismantle plots against America that may have developed.
For the Americans taken hostage in Gaza, Biden vowed to find those still alive and free them.
Neither Wray nor Biden’s words comfort Americans. The threat to the homeland is real, and Biden’s three-year welcome-the-world agenda has put citizens directly in harm’s way.
Since October’s first week, two Iranians were apprehended at the southern border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection found they had terrorism ties, and both were in the Terrorist Screening Database.
In fiscal 2023, 659 known or suspected terrorists, also known as KSTs, were apprehended attempting to illegally enter the United States, according to CBP data.
Even countries listed by the State Department as “State Sponsors of Terrorism” are welcome.
During fiscal year 2022, nationals from Iran — which has been accused of aiding Hamas in its recent attacks on Israel, and is listed on the State Department’s terrorism list — secured 9,400 green cards.
More than 1,600 arrived as chain migrants, and more than 980 arrived through the Diversity Visa Lottery.
Syria, also on the State Department’s list, is another recipient of Biden’s largess.
Syrian nationals received 3,200 green cards. About 720 came to the United States as chain migrants, and more than 150 arrived through the DV.
In all, in FY 2022, the Biden administration invited about 63,000 legal immigrants from nations previously travel-banned from the United States and rewarded them with permanent residency green cards.
About 7,300 arrived as chain migrants, while more than 4,300 arrived through the DV.
Chain migration, which allows permanent residents to petition nuclear and non-nuclear family members to join them in the United States, and the annual DV are heavily criticized immigration policies that their opponents claim serve no national interest.
Other banned countries included Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Venezuela and Yemen.
With the historically high number of KST encounters, Biden and Wray warn, correctly, that the likelihood of a major terrorist act committed on U.S. soil is high.
Nationwide, heightened security measures have been taken, including around the U.S. Capitol where metal barriers were installed.
Alarmed realists who have watched the border crisis devolve into a free-for-all aren’t surprised that panic is setting in.
The 100-year-old Henry Kissinger, who served as President Richard Nixon’s secretary of state, commented on rioting Palestinian supporters living in Germany cheering for Hamas’ assault on Israel.
“It (mass immigration) was a grave mistake to let in so many people of totally different culture and religion and concepts,” he said.
Kissinger’s words come too late to spare the United States from an inevitable assault. Too many legally present Middle Eastern immigrants, and too many unlawful border crossers, have already infiltrated the U.S. interior.
But Kissinger’s cautionary words shouldn’t be too late to fend off a congressional push to grant refugee status to Palestinians, a total that could reach 1 million.
Since President Jimmy Carter signed the Refugee Act of 1980, both sides of the political aisle have supported higher refugee admissions, and more than 140,000 Palestinians already live in the United States.
Although Republicans insist that no such plan to bring in Palestinians is afoot, don’t be surprised if it happens.