The Border Crisis and National Security: What Needs To Be Done?

SUBSCRIBER+EXCLUSIVE BRIEFING — It’s difficult to clearly understand the real nature of the national security threat that exists at the U.S. southern border, namely because it’s just too enticing of an issue for politicians to spin one way or another, leaving out critical context to put the threat into much-needed perspective.

For example, government data tells us that there has been a recent increase in the number of migrants who are on the U.S. terror watch list, or affiliated with someone who is – who have been arrested while trying to cross the border. But it is also true that within a one-year period, that number increased from 98 to 169 arrests while the total number of migrants believed to have crossed during that same timeframe is estimated at more than two million. Further complicating a clear picture of the threat, those arrested, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s 2024 Homeland Threat Assessment, could include ‘known associates’ of those on the terror watch list, including family members. Statistically speaking, there are likely many other national security threats that pose a more significant risk to Americans. But that of course, doesn’t mean that we don’t have a serious problem at the U.S. southern border.