By Steve Neavling
FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that “dangerous individuals” are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border, ” Wray told a Senate panel, saying drug trafficking is the most serious problem, ABC News reports. “The FBI alone seized enough fentanyl in the last two years to kill 270 million people.”
Wray added that there is “no doubt” criminals crossing the border.
“There is a particular network that has — some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have — ISIS ties that we’re very concerned about, and we’ve been spending enormous amount of effort with our partners investigating,” Wray said.
The variety of threats have reached a “whole other level,” Wray said.
“Even before October 7, I would have told this committee that we were at a heightened threat level from a terrorism perspective — in the sense that it’s the first time I’ve seen in a long, long time,” he said. “The threats from homegrown violent extremists that is jihadist-inspired, extremists, domestic violent extremists, foreign terrorist organizations, and state-sponsored terrorist organizations all being elevated at one time since October 7, though, that threat has gone to a whole other level. And so, this is a time I think for much greater vigilance, maybe been called upon us.”
Wray’s testimony comes at a time when Republicans are claiming President Biden is too soft on the border. Democrats responded with legislation that would strengthen border protection, but Republicans have declined to take up the measure.
