Top House Dem Admits Illegal Immigrants Pose National Security Threat

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), conceded to the fact that undocumented immigrants crossing the southern border illegally into the United States pose a significant “threat” to the country.

House Intel Dem Concedes Undocumented Immigrants Pose National Security ‘Threat’ https://t.co/N0LtpYhpsw pic.twitter.com/gruxSmonOM

— Daily Wire News (@DailyWireNews) June 16, 2024

Himes made the admission on Sunday when “Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream asked how worried he is about “potentially millions of people in this country” whose “full story” is not known.”

In response, Himes stated, “Well, it’s not just that, Shannon, right? I mean, remember, the perpetrators of 9/11 pulled off the most spectacular terrorist attack against the United States from inside the United States, on student visas.”

“So, yes, the fact that there are lots of people who — who are here on an undocumented basis is a threat and the FBI director is right about that, and the FBI director and the chiefs of all of the intelligence community are very, very focused,” he continued.

Himes further noted how the fight between Israel and Hamas and the Ukraine-Russia conflict are affecting the border situation.

“Underlying this, of course, is the conflict in Israel and Gaza which has sort of activated radical Islamic terrorists. They more than ever before would like to undertake an attack in a spectacular way,” he stated, adding, “The other thing going on, of course, is that over time we have gradually shifted our attention to China and, of course, to Russia. And, you know, to some extent, it’s a little bit of a zero-sum game. If you’re really focused on China, which I think is appropriate, if you’re really focused on supporting the Ukrainians, which is appropriate, inevitably, there is a little bit less — fewer resources devoted to count — the counterterrorism mission.”

Asked about the report about the arrest of eight foreign nationals with potential ties to ISIS who crossed the border into the U.S. and lived in the country for a while, Himes claimed that “the issue was not that they came across the border, although that is an issue, and the issue is not fundamentally with the vetting process per se.”

According to him, “The issue was that when their identities were determined, we did not have derogatory information on them. Now, that’s sort of an inevitable aspect of you never have perfect information.”

The lawmaker went on to call for Americans to “take some comfort in the fact that the moment these guys started communicating and doing suspect things, we were all over them.”