Palmetto State News

U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) joined Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and eight of their Senate Republican colleagues in a letter to the Biden administration demanding answers for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) failure to share information about the apprehension and subsequent release of suspects on the terror watchlist into the U.S.

"It is evident that the agencies responsible for securing our nation’s southern border have failed to effectively communicate with and notify each other of terrorists that pose threats to American citizens illegally entering the country. The flow of illegal immigration has surged under the Biden administration, allowing these criminals and terrorists to slip through the cracks of our immigration system. Not only are these individuals breaking American laws by crossing the border illegally, but they also pose a significant national security risk," wrote the senators.

"The systemic lack of information-sharing ties the hands of agency immigration enforcement officials on the frontlines. These officials work tirelessly to apprehend illegal immigrants daily, but they should not be handcuffed by agency leadership."

In the letter, the senators outlined a case in which CBP apprehended an illegal immigrant at the southern border, received an inconclusive match to the terror watchlist, and released the illegal immigrant into the U.S. The Federal Bureau of Investigation waited nearly one year to inform ICE of the conclusive match, allowing this risk to national security roam freely within the U.S.

Senators Scott and Risch were joined by Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), John Thune (R-S.D.), and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) in sending the letter.

Read the full letter here.