FBI Chief Worried Border Crisis Leading to 9/11 Repeat

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FBI Director Christopher Wray said Monday he’s concerned illegal migrants entering the U.S. at the southern border could produce another 9/11 terrorist attack.

Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Wray joined other intelligence community leaders in discussing worldwide security threats facing the U.S.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, reminded Wray that there were 26 co-conspirators in the 9/11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people.

“I worry that among the people that are coming across the border that are evading law enforcement, that there are some people among those that mean to do us harm. Do you share that concern?” Cornyn asked Wray.

“I do,” the director replied.

Cornyn also asked Wray about a report last summer that exposed individuals from Uzbekistan being smuggled into the U.S. by an ISIS terrorist group.

“So that’s a threat stream that we’re very concerned about,” Wray said.

“We’re very actively investigating working with DHS [Department of Homeland Security] on both people whose travel was facilitated but also members of the facilitation network in some other way overseas.”

Prior to Cornyn’s questioning, Vice Chairman Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked Wray whether any international smuggling operations were conducted by people connected to “ISIS or other terrorist organization.”

“There is a particular network that has … where some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have ISIS ties that we’re very concerned about, and we’ve been spending enormous amounts of effort with our partners investigating exactly what that network is up to,” Wray said.

Rubio, in discussing risks created by the migrant crisis under President Joe Biden, asked the director whether the FBI has seen crimes committed by people with ties to foreign gangs or other criminal organizations.

“From an FBI perspective, we are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border, and that includes everything from the drug trafficking, and the FBI alone sees enough fentanyl in the last two years to kill 270 million people,” Wray said.

“That’s just on the fentanyl side. An awful lot of violent crime in the United States is at the hands of gangs who are themselves involved in the distribution of that fentanyl.”

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, CIA Director William Burns, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Jeffrey Kruse, NSA Director Timothy Haugh, and State Department Assistant Secretary Brett Holmgren joined Wray in appearing before the committee.