Biden extends national emergency due to terror threats, ongoing since 9/11

The U.S. has been in a perpetual national emergency over terrorism threats since Sept. 11, 2001, which was again extended for another year.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday extended an executive order that has been in place since it was first signed by former president George W. Bush on September 23, 2001.

The White House issued a notice, “Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Persons who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism,” stating Biden signed Executive Order 13224. The order declares a national emergency pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The law relates to “the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the grave acts of terrorism and threats of terrorism committed by foreign terrorists, including the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, in New York and Pennsylvania and against the Pentagon, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks against United States nationals or the United States.”

The order also continues an executive order first signed by former President Donald Trump on Sept. 9, 2019, the notice states. Executive order 13886 was signed “to strengthen and consolidate sanctions to combat the continuing threat posed by international terrorism and to take additional steps to deal with the national emergency.”

It states that those “who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”

The White House says the national security threat is ongoing since the 2001 executive order was signed. Biden is adopting measures “to deal with that emergency.” He extended the national emergency and order “beyond September 23, 2024, … for 1 year.”

The notice was published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

The extension was granted as the greatest number of illegal border crossers entering the U.S. have been identified on the terrorist watch list under the Biden-Harris administration.

According to CBP data, from fiscal 2021 through August of this year, 1,856 identified on the U.S. terrorist watch list as known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) were encountered or apprehended at the northern and southwest borders, with the greatest number in a single year of 736 in fiscal 2023.

Under the Trump administration, 1,432 KSTs were apprehended from fiscal years 2017-2020, with the greatest number reported of 541 in fiscal 2019.

CBP’s fiscal year is from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

CBP reported KST data includes numbers from land ports of entry at the U.S.-Canada and US-Mexico borders, including all nationalities, and noncitizens apprehended between ports of entry at both borders. While many congressional and news reports solely focus on one data set, the greatest number reported every year, with the exception of 2019, are caught by U.S. officials at the US-Canada border, The Center Square first reported.

The greatest number of KSTs reported at the US-Canada border total 487 in fiscal 2023 followed by 323 this fiscal year to date.

Overall, 1,178 KSTs were apprehended at the US-Canada border under the Biden-Harris administration and 798 under the Trump administration.

Since fiscal 2021 through August of this year, 382 noncitizens identified on the terrorist watch list were apprehended after they illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico between ports of entry, according to the data. That’s up from 11 under Trump from fiscal years 2017-2020.

Those identified as KSTs are matched to the Terrorist Screening Dataset, the federal government's database that contains sensitive information on terrorist identities. The TSDS originated as a consolidated terrorist watchlist to hold information on known or suspected terrorists. Over the past decade, it evolved “to include additional individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watchlisted individuals,” CBP says.

The CBP data has been reported as hundreds with ties to the Islamic terrorist group ISIS were released into the country by the Biden administration or evaded capture with ties to an alleged ISIS smuggling ring. FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned multiple times of heightened terrorist threats similar to those existing 23 years ago, The Center Square reported.

Retired national security experts have also warned that a terrorist attack is imminent; U.S. military bases have been breached by illegal foreign nationals; retired FBI national security experts have warned Biden-Harris border policies have facilitated a “soft invasion” into the U.S. of millions of military-age men illegally entering the country, including from terror-linked regions, China and Russia.

The former director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who worked under six presidents, Tom Homan, said Biden is the only president in U.S. history to “unsecure the border on purpose.” He and others argue the Biden-Harris “open border policies have created the greatest national security crisis since 9/11.”