Republicans sound alarm on terrorist threat after visiting southern border

A group of Republican Senators on Tuesday warned of the increased likelihood of terrorist activity within the United States due to the Biden administration's lax border security measures.

In a press conference following their recent trip to the southern border, GOP Sens. John Barrasso, Wyo.; Ted Cruz, Texas; John Cornyn, Texas; and Pete Ricketts, Neb.; highlighted the security shortcomings and the prospects of bad actors entering the country via that route.

Barrasso highlighted in particular, Border Patrol agents' recent seizure of illegal entrants possessing explosives he said were "tailored for terrorism," according to Fox News.

"We have just returned from our southern border, and it is painfully clear that with Joe Biden's open border policy, our country is really at an increased threat for a terrorist attack," he said. The Texas lawmakers, moreover, recalled frustrations among border personnel with policies from their higher-ups that they feel undermine their efforts to secure the Mexican frontier.

"[T]hey risk their lives catching dangerous people, and they turn around and their political superiors just let them go. And the next day, they go back and catch the same people all over again," Cruz said.

"What the Border Patrol tells us... is there's no consequences associated with illegal entry in the United States," Cornyn added.

The lawmakers' concerns come the same day that FBI Director Christopher Wray sounded a similar alarm about the heightened risk of a terrorist attack within the U.S.

"What has now increased is the greater possibility of one of these foreign terrorist organizations directing an attack in the United States," Wray told the Senate Homeland Security Committee. "It is a time to be concerned. We are in a dangerous period."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.