WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford (AR-01) delivered the following unclassified opening statement at a briefing on domestic counterterrorism and the Afghan SIV Program.

The United States is facing a ticking time bomb of terror threats to the Homeland. I was horrified to hear NCTC Director Joe Kent’s testimony to the Homeland Security Committee last week that they had identified 18,000 known and suspected terrorists that were allowed to enter the U.S. during the Biden Administration.

In January 2021, the U.S. had the most secure border in its history. Unfortunately for Americans, on former President Joe Biden’s very first day in office, he began dismantling the processes and protections built under the previous Administrations that until that time kept America safe.

On day one, the Biden Administration: halted construction of the border wall, rolled back immigration enforcement priorities domestically; ended travel restrictions from countries of concern; halted deportations for 100 days; and suspended the Migrant Protection Protocols program, enabling asylum seekers—many with little to no documentation proving their true identity—to enter the U.S. to await court hearings. Unfortunately, we’ve lost track of many of those asylees.

In addition to the vast numbers that entered the U.S. via our southern border, during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the Biden Administration granted entry to 190,000 Afghan nationals—again, many lacking documentation—and often without collecting any biometric information, under Operation Allies Welcome.

While the U.S. certainly had a duty to ensure the safety and well-being of Afghans who bravely worked with the U.S. in fighting the Taliban—at great risk to themselves and their families—the rushed and poorly planned withdrawal created a perfect storm of circumstances that overwhelmed our ability to properly vet who was allowed in our country.

Last week, Secretary Noem said her greatest fear is that we do not know who is in our country, where they are, or their intentions. DHS estimates that up to 15-20 million individuals have entered the U.S. under the last Administration, including those who entered our country undetected. These reckless and irresponsible open border policies have put innocent Americans in danger.

As we’ve tragically seen too many instances of recently, both domestically and around the world, Islamic jihadists seek to attack the West, and in particular Jewish and Christian targets. With 18,000 known or suspected terrorists in the U.S., we are playing goal line defense, and they only have to get lucky once.

Today, I look forward to getting a better understanding of the domestic counterterrorism picture, and hearing how the interagency is working to find, monitor, prosecute, and deport known or suspected terrorists that never should have entered our country to begin with.

I thank all of our briefers for your vigilant work to clean up this dangerous mess, and dedication to keeping Americans safe.

I now yield to the Ranking Member for any opening statement he’d like to make.

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