OPINION:
Last month, Americans across the country came together to honor and remember the 2,977 Americans who lost their lives in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Noticeably absent from the ceremonies in New York City, at the Pentagon, or in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, was President Biden, who was in Alaska returning from an international trip.
This wasn’t a scheduling gaffe; it was a conscious decision by the president to deprioritize attending a vigil for the worst terrorist attack our homeland has ever experienced.
Unfortunately, this decision was not surprising. For the better part of the last 2½ years, Mr. Biden has claimed that White supremacy and “MAGA Republicans” are the biggest threats to the homeland. Speaking at Howard University’s graduation in May, the president declared White supremacy “the most dangerous terrorist threat.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has made similar assertions, saying last year that the “greatest terrorism-related threat that we face in the homeland is the threat of domestic violent extremism” and that “the most prominent threat is the threat of White supremacists.” Oddly, the secretary also recently claimed that climate change is “the most prominent threat we face.”
Omitted from the administration’s publicized list of threats to the homeland in the past 2½ years is any reference to the unsecured southern border. Nothing has been mentioned about the more than 250 known or suspected terrorists apprehended at the southern border thus far during the Biden administration or the nearly 2 million “gotaways” who avoided the Border Patrol and have disappeared into our communities.
Amid that backdrop, DHS quietly published its 2024 Homeland Threat Assessment just days after the 9/11 anniversary. For those unfamiliar with the report, it is intended to identify “the most direct, pressing threats to our Homeland during the next year.” Despite the political rhetoric of the Biden administration, the report never mentions White supremacy.
Instead, the report is a damning indictment of the Biden administration’s failed border strategy. “While terrorists pose an enduring threat to the Homeland, drugs kill and harm far more people in the United States annually,” one passage reads.
The report explains that the leading cause of death of young Americans ages 18 to 45 is fentanyl poisoning. It also states that the source of the fentanyl is the Mexican drug cartels, which exploit an overwhelmed Border Patrol to smuggle it into the U.S. and flood our communities.
This threat assessment predicts that the fentanyl poisoning epidemic will persist in 2024, underscoring how the Biden administration’s border policies have effectively turned every state into a border state.
The report also undermines the White House’s claims that the border is secure. According to the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, “We expect continued high numbers of migrant encounters over the next year,” and “Terrorists and criminal actors may exploit the elevated flow and increasingly complex security environment to enter the United States.”
Although the administration and its media allies try to paint the unlawful border crossers as sympathetic women and children seeking a better life, real national security and public safety threats are among those entering our country. This is an inconvenient truth to the Biden administration’s narrative, but the reality is that nefarious actors exploit vulnerabilities, and there is nothing more fragile today than our southern border.
The Biden administration is at a crossroads. By every objective measure, its border policies have failed Americans and jeopardized the security of the homeland. Look no further than what is going on in Eagle Pass, Texas. The mayor has declared a state of emergency as a record 10,000 aliens crossed the southern border illegally in just 24 hours several times in recent weeks.
It is time to stop politicizing the issue and adopt a new strategy that puts Americans first. To secure the border and keep fentanyl out of American communities, there must be deterrence and accountability for unlawful behavior.
The administration should end its “catch and release” scheme and reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy. It also needs to treat the cartels as public enemy No. 1 and use leverage to compel the Mexican government to become a useful partner in the effort to defeat the cartels.
Open borders are a national security threat that makes our communities more dangerous. It’s time to get serious about securing the border.
• Chad Wolf is the former acting secretary of homeland security and executive director and chair of the Center for Homeland Security and Immigration at the America First Policy Institute. Robert Law is the director of the Center for Homeland Security and Immigration at the institute and the former chief of the Office of Policy and Strategy at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Trump administration.
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