Last Updated on August 21, 2022
According to a new report released by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), 10 individuals who are currently on a U.S. terror watch list were apprehended at the southern border in July. Border patrol has apprehended more terror suspects at the border in 2022 than the previous five years combined.
The report provided broad insight into the unprecedented migration wave that is affecting the southern border. According to CBP, more than 1.8 million migrant encounters were recorded as of late July. As for terror watch list encounters, border patrol officials reported that 66 individuals on such lists have been apprehended since January.
“Encounters of watchlisted individuals at our borders are very uncommon, underscoring the critical work CBP Agents and Officers carry out every day on the frontlines,” the report said. Despite the comments, statistics show a sharp spike in terror watch list encounters in 2022.
The 66 people caught at the border in Fiscal Year 2022 is more than twice the numbers from the previous five years combined, Fox News reported. In 2017, CBP apprehended just two terrorism suspects at the southern border. That number jumped to six in 2018, but then dropped down to three in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
The number spiked dramatically in 2021, when 15 encounters were recorded on the year. In total, 29 terror watch list encounters were recorded from 2017-2021. With 66 encounters as of July, the 2022 has been truly unprecedented.
An increase in terror watch list encounters coincides with an overall spike in general migrant encounters. Fiscal Year 2022 has already seen 1,822,160 encounters through July, with two months left in the year. This is more than 2021’s total of 1,662,167, which itself was more than four times 2020’s 405,036, Fox News reported.
