Chicago – October 05, 2024
More than 1.7 million migrants have been encountered at the U.S. border and have come from countries that officials believe pose a national security threat to the U.S., according to a new House report.
The report by the House Judiciary Committee says the number of “special interest aliens” (SIAs) came from a congressional staff briefing by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials. SIAs are those who have come from countries identified by the U.S. government as having conditions that promote or protect terrorism or potentially pose some sort of national security threat to the U.S.
In 2019, the DHS defined an SIA as “a non-U.S. person who, based on an analysis of travel patterns, potentially poses a national security risk to the United States or its interests. Often such individuals or groups are employing travel patterns known or evaluated to possibly have a nexus to terrorism.”
“DHS analysis includes an examination of travel patterns, points of origin, and/or travel segments that are tied to current assessments of national and international threat environments,” it said.
The House report says that there are currently 26 special interest countries, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Syria and Turkey. The agency recently removed 11 countries from the list and added 12 others, including North Korea, China and Venezuela.