FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned that known or suspected terrorists who use fake identification after crossing the southern border is “a big concern” for the national intelligence community.
Wray made the remarks Tuesday in front of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, as part of its 2024 Annual Threat Assessment hearing with the U.S. intelligence community.
Wray was joined by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines; CIA Director William Burns; General Timothy Haugh, director of the National Security Agency and Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command; and Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The hearing emphasized the significant increase in threats against the U.S. made by foreign entities, including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, in addition to how the U.S.-Mexico border is another method for bad actors to infiltrate the nation.
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Mississippi Rep. Trent Kelly, a Republican member of the select committee, asked Wray on Tuesday if the FBI is confident in knowing the whereabouts of every known or suspected terrorist—or someone else on a watchlist—on the southern border or another border, and subsequently arrested, deported or tracked by authorities.
“There are a few different categories of people that we have concerns about,” Wray said. “When a known or suspected terrorist, as in known that they’re a known or suspected terrorist is apprehended at the border, I’m confident in the vast majority of instances there’s very close lash-up between FBI and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) on it.
“The bigger concern is a situation, for example, where somebody presents fake identification documents at the border and there’s not biometrics to match up—so there’s no way to be able to know that they’re not who they say they are. Then, they get into the country; then somehow we find out that they’re someone in fact who’s on the list.”
Wray also told Select Committee Chairman Michael Turner, a Republican congressman from Ohio, that over the past five years, the FBI has seen an increase in the number of known or suspected terrorists attempting to cross the southern border.
During testimony in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday, Wray made similar comments warning about individuals illegally infiltrating into the U.S. via the southern border.
Committee member Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, asked Wray if he shared the same level of concern regarding the threat of terrorism associated with unlawful entry through the southern border—and whether it poses a serious threat to U.S. national security.
“We are concerned about the terrorism implications from potential targeting of vulnerabilities at the border,” Wray responded, reiterating concerns of threats accelerating since the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel that have led to a deadly conflict in Gaza.
“Well, even before October 7, I would have told this committee that we were at a heightened threat level from a terrorism perspective,” Wray said on Monday.
“In the sense that, it’s the first time I’ve seen in a long, long time, the threats from homegrown violent extremists—that is jihadist-inspired extremists—domestic violent extremists, foreign terrorist organizations, and state-sponsored terrorist organizations all being elevated at one time.”
Newsweek has contacted the FBI for comment via email.
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