Lankford: national security risk with Iranians on terror watch list crossing border

Lankford Raises National Security Concerns Over Iranians Illegally Crossing Southern Border 

WASHINGTON, DC (October 17th) – Senator James Lankford (R-OK), lead Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management, shared a video to continue to draw attention to the national security crisis at our southern border with Iranians on the terror watch list who are entering the US illegally.

Lankford sounded the alarm about “military-age, single adult men” coming across the border illegally from non-Spanish speaking countries during a floor speech in June following his visit to Nogales, Arizona. 

Excerpt

Senator James Lankford here. Walking through the Capitol but still thinking about what’s happening not only on our southern border but also what’s happening in Israel right now. How incredibly heartbreaking that is...We are more connected than people realize. We’ve had 150+ people that are on our terror screening database that have come across our border in the last fiscal year, something I’ve talked about over and over again. The number of people that are crossing from countries all over the world. The cartels literally exposed a weakness in this Administration what they’re doing. We have so many folks coming, including from Iran and Iraq. We had folks come across last year to try to assassinate George Bush, specifically from Iraq. We’ve now had people that are coming from Iran that are on our terror watch list. We also don’t know how many people we’re not catching there, so there’s yet another reason to be able to secure the border. It’s not just drugs. It’s not just human trafficking. It’s national security, and we have got to secure that border.