The former President Donald Trump spoke about the Southern border in his social platform. According to him “Terrorists are pouring in,unchecked, from all over the world. There is now a 100% chance that there will be major terror attacks in the USA. Close the border”!

Donald Trump knows very well that the Southern border is the weak spot of Joe Biden. 

Trump also assured about his strategy that assisted him to win the 2016 presidential race. This strategy is about connecting terrorism and immigration, also remember the “ Muslim Ban”. So, why not use it again to get success.

But is Trump correct? Let’s consider his first assertion, that terrorists are entering the US from various parts of the world. If this were true, wouldn’t it be a major news headline? Whenever terrorists are apprehended anywhere in the US, the media extensively covers such incidents, as seen in the case of an Uzbek man sentenced to life imprisonment last year for his involvement in a terrorist attack in Manhattan that resulted in the deaths of eight individuals.

Oddly, there are no reports of terrorist attacks occurring throughout the US by individuals who crossed the southern border. Perhaps it’s the mainstream media hiding these incidents to protect the terrorists!

In reality, what Trump seems to be talking about are statistics from US Customs and Border Protection regarding encounters with individuals at US borders who are on the US terrorism watch list. Just to make sure that presence in this watchlist does not mean you are involved in a terrorist group. 

According to the report, the watchlist contains about 2 million people. This simply means that the government suspects someone may have some unspecified link to terrorism for undisclosed reasons.

Back to 2023 where the southern border has 249 encounters with people on the United State watch list related to terrorism. But in the Canada border the number was doubled to approximately 487 total encounters. Still, nobody is suggesting building a wall along the Canadian border because of concerns about terrorists coming in from there.

In 1999 the real terrorist was caught at the border of the United States. The name of this terrorist was Ahmed Ressam. He was driving from Canada and crossing the Port Angeles border in Washington. During this crossing he was caught. He was found with a car that was full with explosive material and was on his way to LAX Airport to set off a bomb there.

The fear mongering about terrorists streaming across the southern border is not accurate in identifying where most of the terrorist threat in the US originates. Since 9/11, there has been only one deadly terrorist attack in the US by a foreign national with ties to a terrorist group: In 2019, a Saudi military officer who had been in contact with an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen killed three US sailors at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. 

This Saudi officer didn’t cross the perilous Darien Gap in Panama and then traverse all the way across Mexico to cross the southern border; he legally arrived in the US two years earlier.

Furthermore, most of the terrorist attacks in the US have been carried out by its own residents since 9/11. 

The most famous example of this group was Omar Mateen. He was inspired by ISIS when he was involved in the murder of 49 people in Florida nightclubs in 2016. He was a US citizen born in Queens, New York. 

Contrary to common perception, the most significant terrorist threat in recent years in the US has not come from jihadist terrorists like Mateen. According to a report by the US Government Accountability Office last year, the primary threat has been from extremist right-wing terrorists driven by racial or ethnic hatred or anti-government sentiments. These terrorists are US citizens, not immigrants.

So, When thinking about the act of terrorism it might be good for Donals Trump to see his own action rather than diverting attention to the southern border.