Alarming US military thwarts attacks by potential terrorists

By Joe Guzzardi
Syndicated Columnist

In a high-stakes gamble with the safety of Americans at stake, President Joe Biden is once again putting it all on the line. Insiders on Capitol Hill confirm that the administration is considering granting refugee status to Palestinians from Gaza through mass parole—an immigration power the president has abused since entering the White House. The Immigration and Nationality Act requires that parole status be granted only temporarily and on a case-by-case basis to meet a compelling, urgent humanitarian need. In blatant violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act, Biden has granted blanket parole to millions of illegal immigrants.

The Biden administration has compiled a long list of illegal, unconstitutional immigration crimes that endanger the public. At the top of that list is his red carpet welcoming of an unknown number of millions – perhaps ten million or more – of unscreened illegal immigrants whose backgrounds and intentions are unknown. Local communities struggle to provide housing, health care, education, and other positive services to the aliens present illegally. So far, Biden has fortunately avoided a terrorist attack, but his luck is running out. In fiscal year 2023, 736 known or suspected terrorists were arrested at the northern or southern border. Among those who have escaped, an estimated 1.6 million over a three-year period, there are undoubtedly dozens more terrorists.

The nation now knows that at least one likely active terrorist, a Jordanian citizen who illegally crossed the California-Mexico border in May, recently entered Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia in a delivery truck. Accompanied by another Jordanian citizen whose F-1 student visa expired in May — another immigration crime that turns his temporary visa status into that of an illegal immigrant — the two claimed they were Amazon subcontractors making a delivery. Amazon had no knowledge of the Jordanians as employees or subcontractors. DHS refuses to release the Jordanians’ names; the FBI and ICE remain silent. But Dave Katz, a former DEA agent and federal weapons instructor at Quantico, warned that the van incident was likely “a dry run for driving a van that would not be empty the second time around.” Katz called the Jordanians’ failed attempt “the equivalent of a feasibility study.”

The Jordanians are not DHS’s only national security concern. In North Carolina, two non-English-speaking illegal immigrant Chechens were caught breaking into the home of a U.S. Army Special Operations Command officer after sunset. The men had cellphones with Russian-speaking contacts. One of them, Ramzan Daraev, claimed to work as a subcontractor for Utilities One but had no electrical equipment or identification. Utilities One is a foreign-registered company based in New Jersey that was founded in 2016 by a young Moldovan CEO, three years after he moved to the U.S.

When confronted in a wooded part of the property near a power line, an altercation ensued and the army officer shot Daraev. Authorities interrogated the second Chechen, Dzhankutov Adsalan, and released him, even though he was in the U.S. illegally. The injured special forces trooper’s family told news agencies that the Chechens had photographed their children. To describe the incidents in Quantico and North Carolina as suspicious, threatening and a threat to national security is an understatement.

Despite the frightening incidents in Jordan and Moldova, and the 30,000 unvetted Chinese who have flooded the border but no White House official is concerned about them, Biden seems determined to invite more trouble. Accepting refugees from Gaza would raise national security risks to levels not seen since 9/11. Before Biden and the State Department take the drastic step of accepting Gaza residents as refugees, issuing them work permits, and paving their way to citizenship, they should familiarize themselves with an analysis by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy titled “Teaching Terror: How Hamas is Radicalizing Palestine.” The institute concluded that Hamas is successfully radicalizing Palestinians not only to support and fund the group’s terrorist attacks, but also to facilitate and participate in them. More than 25 years ago, in 1997, the State Department designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. And although Hamas is an organization that describes itself as a local resistance group, it unsurprisingly targets foreign audiences from America to Malaysia with its Internet-based terror messages. Hamas raises most of its $2 billion annual budget abroad, including generous funding from Iran, UN agencies and so-called charitable groups.

Two-term Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who served in the Iraq War and spent 23 years in the Army Reserve and Army National Guard, wrote a blunt letter to Biden, co-signed by 34 Republican senators, demanding a full explanation of his vision for Gaza refugees. Biden, to quote Ernst, “disregards my work to prevent an October 7-related attack on our own shores.” The White House referred Ernst’s letter to the Department of Homeland Security, which rebuffed her with the false promise that “all individuals from Gaza who have traveled or would travel to the United States will be thoroughly vetted, as the safety of the American people is our top priority.” The reality is that the administration has no intention of tracking down, let alone deporting, dangerous actors posing as refugees. A new report from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general revealed that it has already failed to track the 77,000 Afghan refugees admitted into the country. The consequences of the failure to withdraw Afghans remain to be seen.

The Biden administration has enough to do without further tempting the fate of Gaza refugees. The White House’s first commitment is to save American citizens, not Gaza refugees.

Joe Guzzardi is an analyst at the Institute for Sound Public Policy and has written about immigration for more than 30 years. He can be reached at [email protected].

* * *

••• Editor’s note: A free press is critical to well-informed voters and citizens. While some news organizations opt for fee-based websites or costly paywalls, The Highland County Press has provided a free newspaper and website to our community for 25 years. If you would like to contribute to this service, it would be greatly appreciated. Donations can be sent to: The Highland County Press, PO Box 849, Hillsboro, Ohio 45133. Please indicate “for website” in the subject line.