81 suspects on terror watchlist caught trying to illegally cross into United States since October

Data from Customs and Border Protection has shown that with six months left in Fiscal Year 2024, encounters with those whose names appear in the Terrorist Screening Dataset are set to come close to, if not surpass, the 172 reported the previous fiscal year.

According to CBP, 80 of the aforementioned encounters with border patrol agents occurred along the southern border, while just one suspect attempted to enter the US from Canada. At official ports of entry, however, that disparity was reversed, with 24 coming in via the southern border, and 172 via the northern.

In the grand scheme of things, those on the terror watchlist make up just 0.0069 percent of all illegal immigrants caught by border patrol, however that number has been on the rise since Joe Biden took office.

In 2019, terror suspects made up 0.0004 percent of all encounters, and jumped slightly to 0.0007 and 0.0010 percent the following years, respectively. In 2022, however, it more than quadrupled to 0.0044 percent, and in 2023 nearly doubled again, reaching 0.0083 percent.

Among those who have blamed the spike on Biden and the Democrats is Sen. Marco Rubio.

"They're coming because they believe they'll be able to get here easier and they can stay," he told Fox News. "As far as the terrorists are concerned, they're coming from parts of the world that we have no data on, so if you're 'Joe Terrorist' and you come to the border, we may not know you're a terrorist because we don't have any data on you."

Rubio warned that terror groups may send members to the United States because they know "Biden's open border" will be easy to penetrate."

"He opened the door to America for ISIS and all these other criminal and terrorist element groups," the senator added, "and it's put our country in grave danger."