FBI Director Christopher Wray said he was concerned that illegal migrants coming across the southern border could potentially launch another 9/11 terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
According to the Daily Mail, in an exchange that lasted several minutes, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, (R) questioned Wray about the issue of the southern border being used by adversaries of the U.S., and terrorists in particular. One top concern is the ongoing migrant crisis at the porous southern border that has seen over 7.2 million individuals enter since President Biden took office.
The Washington Examiner said Cornyn also pointed to border officials encountering tens of thousands of nationals from the U.S.’s top adversary, China, in 2023, noting that the number represented a sharp increase over the previous year. Cornyn asked Wray if more Chinese nationals could have entered the country as “gotaways.”
“Right, we don’t know what we’re dealing with,” Wray replied. “It gets especially challenging because presumably within that group, you’ve got not only people who may mean us harm but also people who are fleeing the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] and share our concerns about their authoritarian thuggishness.”
Cornyn’s X account, formerly Twitter, referenced Wray’s warning of a ‘wide array’ of dangerous threats stemming from the border and linked to the article on the hearing by the Washington Examiner.
FBI Director Wray warns of ‘wide array’ of dangerous threats stemming from border https://t.co/yAQXLNMbc9 via @dcexaminer
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) March 12, 2024
The FBI director’s disclosure came during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on the greatest worldwide threats facing the U.S. today. A Forbes Breaking News video of segments of the hearing said that witnesses included Office of the Director of National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, CIA Director William Burns, State Department Intelligence and Research Assistant Secretary Brett Holmgren, NSA/CSS Director Timothy Haugh, FBI Director Chris Wray and DIA Director Jeffrey Kruse.
Much of the hearing focused on the latest annual report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence which said the U.S. is ‘facing a fragile world order’ due to ‘accelerating strategic competition with major authoritarian powers’ working to undermine order.
Chief among the U.S. security concerns are Russia’s growing desire for an arsenal of nuclear space weapons and China and Iran’s efforts to disrupt the upcoming 2024 election through social media and other influence operations.
