California congressman calls out committee's double standard between domestic terrorism and illegal border crossings
The House Committee on Homeland Security has not held a hearing on domestic terrorism during the 118th Congress despite FBI, DHS and others acknowledging how much of a threat it poses
An FBI report says “domestic violent extremists represent one of the most persistent threats to the United States today.”
The U.S. Government Accountability Office warns that domestic terrorism “is on the rise.”
And yet under its current Republican leadership in the 118th Congress, the House Committee on Homeland Security has not held a hearing on domestic terrorism.
Its last two hearings on Sept. 18-19 were titled “Beyond the Border: Terrorism and Homeland Security Consequences of Illegal Immigration” and “A Country Without Borders: How Biden-Harris’ Open-Borders Policies Have Undermined Our Safety and Security.”
Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) called out the double standard between illegal immigration and domestic terrorism during the Sept. 19 hearing.
“The data shows that most terrorist activity is conducted by United States citizens and not immigrants,” he said.
Correa also mentioned the heightened security at schools in Springfield, Ohio, over the Trump/Vance rumors about immigrants eating pets.
[25m, 10s]: “This has been fueled by a former president spreading baseless rumors about migrants eating much-loved pets in those communities. Fortunately there have not been any injuries yet, but the danger is real. Fearmongering for political purposes has real consequences, and yet we have not had one hearing in this committee during this entire Congress to address domestic violence or extremism. We are not minimizing the threat of terrorism. It is real and it requires our focus, but clearly we need to defend our citizens, our taxpayers, from all terrorist attacks that would harm our citizens. And yes, we have a challenge at the southern border, and as I’ve said before, this is not just a U.S. problem. This is a we problem of a global challenge.”
That last part of his quote underscores how the committee’s Democrats have been calling attention to the global trends driving increases in illegal immigration around the world, not just at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) pointed to a chart frequently cited by Republicans that purports to show a spike in illegal immigration coinciding with Biden’s term in the White House. But what it actually shows is surging illegal immigration that dates back to the final year of the Trump administration.
“Trump was in office for another nine months and those numbers actually were climbing,” Ramirez said.
Migrants have been heading toward the strongest post-Covid job markets, according to Alex Nowrasteh, the Cato Institute’s vice president of economic and social policy studies:
[1h, 8m, 17s]: The best pull to come to the U.S. has always been the economy. It is still the economy, that is what’s pulling people in, and the rapid economic recovery after Covid can explain more than any other factor, although some of the other ones do matter, can explain more than any other change in policy why there is such a rapid and large increase in illegal immigration.
A recent analysis by Nowrasteh concluded that a U.S. citizen had about a 1 in 4.45 million chance of being murdered in a terrorist attack inside the U.S. committed by a foreign-born terrorist from 1975 to 2023, compared to a general murder rate of about 1 in 13,767.
“Terrorism presents a real threat to the life, liberty, and property of Americans,” the study concluded. “That has led many Americans to worry about foreign-born terrorists entering the United States, either legally or illegally, and carrying out disastrous attacks. But foreign-born terrorism on US soil is a low-probability event that poses small risks and low costs on Americans as a whole.”
On domestic terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security’s 2024 Homeland Threat Assessment said “the threat of violence from individuals radicalized in the United States will remain high.” But it added that the illegal drug trade between the U.S. and Mexico is expected to kill more U.S. citizens than anything else.
The Homeland Security Committee’s hearing schedule this week:
Sept. 24, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. — The Future of FAMS: Evaluating the Federal Air Marshal Mission
Sept. 24, 2 to 5 p.m. — An Outage Strikes: Assessing the Global Impact of CrowdStrike’s Faulty Software Update
Sept. 26, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Given the Green Light: Open Border Policies and Threats to Law Enforcement
Sept. 26, 2 to 4:30 p.m. — Trafficked, Exploited, and Missing: Migrant Children Victims of the Biden-Harris Administration