McCarthy wants classified briefing on Border Patrol's apprehension of people on Terrorism Watch List

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in a Tuesday letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director William Burns requested a classified briefing about the U.S. Border Patrol's apprehension of people on the U.S. Terrorism Watch List.

"I am writing to request a classified briefing regarding certain individuals apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol. Through conversations with the Border Patrol and media reports, I have learned of the apprehension of foreign nationals on the Terrorism Watch List who were attempting to illegally cross our southern border," he wrote. "When scheduled, I would request Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, and Leader Schumer attend as well. I would also like to extend an invitation to Vice President Kamala Harris to join us for this briefing," McCarthy wrote.

"Last month, I, along with 12 other members of Congress, traveled to El Paso, Texas, to see firsthand the humanitarian and security crisis that has emerged along our southern border this year. The agents of the U.S. Border Patrol provided us with an eye-opening tour and briefings regarding the current crisis in El Paso and the operational challenges they face each day. During the briefings, the agents conveyed to us that they have apprehended individuals from not only Mexico and Central America, but also countries including China, Iran, Yemen, and Turkey. They then conveyed that they had apprehended individuals who are on the Terrorism Watch List," the letter says.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) deleted a press release that it had posted on Monday which noted that Border Patrol agents arrested two illegal alien Yemeni men who were on the FBI's Terrorism Watch List and the No-Fly list. The press release noted that agents apprehended one of the men in late January and the other man in late March.

According to reports, a CBP spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday that the press release "was not properly reviewed and contained certain disclosure and policy information related to national security that required CBP to remove it from our website."

"The No Fly List is a small subset of the U.S. government Terrorist Screening Database (also known as the terrorist watchlist) that contains the identity information of known or suspected terrorists," according to TSA.gov. "This database is maintained by the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center."