Most of us can sympathize with many of the reasons people choose to enter the United States illegally. We understand those motives, even when we can’t approve of them. But others are illegally entering the country who have the most wicked motives imaginable. These have come to kill, steal, and destroy. We call them terrorists, and we know they are entering our country.
How do we know? Look at the numbers. A “gotaway” is someone the Border Patrol observes unlawfully crossing the border, but who is not apprehended. Between the years 2010 and 2020, many Americans were rightly concerned about what they saw as a border crisis. That decade saw 1.4 million gotaways at the southern border. But in the most recent government reporting, it took just two years — 2022 and 2023 — for the number of gotaways to reach 1.6 million. Think about that — more gotaways in two years than in ten.
Only a miniscule percentage of gotaways enter the country for the purpose of terrorism. But it doesn’t take many. Nineteen hijackers carried out the 9/11 attacks. Those who cross the southern border illegally come from all over the world. If someone from Pakistan wants to illegally enter the US, they go to Mexico, then cross the US border. And they are coming from everywhere — including known enemies like Russia and China, and nations like Pakistan, known to harbor terrorists.
Staggering as the gotaway numbers are, it gets worse. We don’t know how many people slipped into the country — “got away” — without being spotted. It is a long border. Many terrorists are adept at tunnel building, and we know the border is riddled with such underground passageways.
Then there are the caught-and-released. On June 11th we learned about the arrest of eight men from Tajikistan. They are suspected of having ties to ISIS. At the border, officials vetted them and found them clean. As of the time I write this, they have only been arrested on immigration violations. Terror-related charges are expected to come later.
In April, the FBI arrested a Baltimore man they also believe to be affiliated with ISIS. After he had been living in the United States for about a year, his home country of Uzbekistan issued an international notice of his alleged terrorist ties. Another year passed before US officials finally arrested him. Even when the State Department vets people from places like Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, we have no real assurance of the person’s peaceful intentions.
There are many other examples. At a time when rage against the United States among radical Islamic terrorists is at an all-time high, the United States has what amounts to an open southern border.
This concern is more than theoretical. It could directly affect your life. God remains the hope of all nations. We must step through every open door to present the Gospel of Jesus everywhere we can.
