The former head of the FBI's Terrorism Screening Center under President Obama has expressed alarm over the massive influx of unvetted adult males pouring across the southern border.
Tim Healey told America's Newsroom that he is losing sleep over the rise in known migrants apprehended at the border who are on the terrorism watch list.
The number of migrants on the terror watch list shot up from 14 during Donald Trump's presidency to 336 so far under President Biden, Healey noted.
While staggering, the current number does not include "got aways" who enter the country undetected, Healey said.
"The last three years, you’ve had 336 known or suspected terrorists arrested between entry points in the southern border. If you take the past four years, fiscal year ’17, ’18, ’19, and ’20, you had 14. So, that caused us, from my perspective, sleepless nights," he said.
Healey noted the changing composition of the migrant waves, which now consist primarily of adult men rather than children or families.
The countries of origin have also changed, with a shocking rise in foreign nationals from China and Middle Eastern nations that are hotbeds of terrorism.
Violent crimes by some migrant men have shined a light on the festering crisis, which has seen millions of largely unvetted people pour into the country in just three years.
While Biden has tried to offload blame on Republicans and a "broken system," Healey noted the scale of the current crisis is truly unprecedented.
During the Obama years, Healey said he was concerned when just 24 migrants a year were flagged.
"We’d average one or two a month. So, maximum, 12 to 24. And I was concerned about those 24...now, there [are] 336. And then, plus the gotaways, so, it’s a significant problem," he said.
Healey signed a letter to Congress with other national security officials warning Congress of the danger of the open border.
"Military aged men from across the globe, many from countries or regions not friendly to the United States, are landing in waves on our soil by the thousands — not by splashing ashore from a ship or parachuting from a plane but rather by foot across a border that has been accurately advertised around the world as largely unprotected with ready access granted," the letter said.
