Biden's border patrol refuses to reveal what countries illegal immigrants on terror watchlists are coming from: report

The Biden administration has refused to overturn data pertaining to the nationalities of illegal immigrants who are on terrorist watchlists and have been arrested by Border Patrol agents in recent years.

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin revealed on Thursday that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said they will not overturn the data, citing privacy and law enforcement sensitivity exemptions. This is in response to a FOIA request that had been filed over six months ago, according to Melugin.

In a letter sent to the Fox News reporter denying the request, CBP wrote: "The privacy interests of the individuals in the records you have requested outweigh any minimal public interest in disclosure of the information. Any private interest you may have in that information does not factor into the aforementioned balancing test."

Melugin, who has been working to expose the border crisis over the past several years, expressed his frustrations on X and said: "I did not ask for any names, IDs, addresses, anything that would breach privacy, nor did I ask for any law enforcement sensitive information. I simply requested *only* the nationalities of people arrested on the list, so the public can have an understanding of where in the world they are coming from."

In the first paragraph of their response letter, CBP acknowledged that Melugin had only requested to obtain the nationalities of those who were arrested on the terror watch list.

However, the federal law enforcement agency went on to cite exemptions unrelated to the FOIA request, such as dates of birth, medical records, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, and other information that was not requested.

The Fox News reporter said he disagrees with CBP's response and will appeal the agency's decision. This comes as Congressional Republicans warned about the possibility of terrorist flooding into the United States due to President Biden unsecured southern border. With the lack of transparency from the Biden administration, it's unclear how many people who have entered the US illegally might be on terror watchlists.