Kelly to House Judiciary Committee: We must address the surge of suspected terrorists crossing our Northern border

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), Co-Chair of the Northern Border Security Caucus, testified before the House Judiciary Committee about the threats and vulnerabilities of an unsecured U.S. Northern border. Kelly also urged members of the Committee, whose jurisdiction includes immigration issues, to support his resolution introduced last month. The resolution calls on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to develop a formal plan to secure the Northern border. Currently, the resolution is backed by Kelly and 15 House colleagues.

Rep. Kelly's testimony follows recent reports from U.S. Customs & Border Protection which shows an alarming number of suspects on the terror watchlist who are crossing into the United States along the Northern border with Canada. To date in FY23, 85% of all suspected terrorists encountered at land border ports of entry have crossed into the United States along the Northern border, according to U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP). That number is up from just 34% in FY2021.

You can watch Rep. Kelly's testimony here.

KEY EXCERPTS FROM REP. KELLY'S TESTIMONY:

• "There is one stretch of almost 500 miles where there is only one agent. One. We're outnumbered at the Northern border. The numbers are off the charts with what's going on right now. This whole thing has gotten out of control."
• "At the Southern border, you have to cross a river. At the Northern border, you just have to take one step. There's no line drawn. There's no fence, there's nothing. It's completely unguarded."
• The irresponsibility of the Biden administration right now to sit back and continue to refuse to even acknowledge the fact that we have a problem, not only at our Southwest border but also at our Northern border... it's more important than a Republican problem or a Democrat problem. This is an American problem."

BACKGROUND

• Of the 505 individuals on the terror watchlist that CBP has encountered at ports of entry since the beginning of the current fiscal year, 429 have occurred at the Northern border.
• In Aug. 2023, 55% of all illegal drug seizures (by weight) at U.S. borders came on the Northern border.
• More Northern border land encounters have occurred so far in FY23 than in ALL of 2020, 2021, and 2022 COMBINED.
• Since President Biden took office in Jan. 2021, there has been a 20,043% increase in Northern land border encounters.
• As record levels of border encounters and drug smuggling continue to increase, U.S. Border Patrol staffing on the Northern border has remained constant since Fiscal Year 2009.

The Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS) – also known as the “watchlist” – is the U.S. government’s database that contains sensitive information on terrorist identities. The TSDS originated as the consolidated terrorist watchlist to house information on known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) but has evolved over the last decade to include additional individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watchlisted individuals.

In February 2023, Reps. Kelly and Ryan Zinke (R-MT) founded the Northern Border Security Caucus to highlight the unique challenges and demands created by illegal immigration and drug smuggling in the 13 states along the U.S.-Canadian border. Spanning more than 5,500 miles between Alaska and Maine, the U.S. northern border is the longest border between two countries in the world.

In March 2023, Reps. Kelly and Zinke published an op-ed on FoxNews.com explaining their work and the challenges along the Northern border.