Terror watchlist arrests at the southern border soar under Biden

Arrests at the southern border of people on the U.S. terror watchlist are skyrocketing under the Biden administration from zero in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, to 98 last fiscal year, according to official data. 

So far this fiscal year, which began in October 2022, Customs and Border Patrol have encountered 38 non-U.S. citizens at the southern U.S. border on the "Terrorist Screening Dataset," also known as the "watchlist."

The number of watchlist arrests is making up an increasing percentage of border encounters, data shows, while a record number of nearly 2.4 million illegal migrants were encountered last fiscal year. That number is on track to be surpassed this year. 

Meanwhile, about 1.2 million illegal migrants are known to be "gotaways" since Biden entered office, according to Fox News. This means the migrants are believed to have entered the United States without interacting with Border Patrol first.