WASHINGTON – Despite some Twitter chatter, there is no evidence ISIS terrorists are trying to slip into the United States from Mexico, Department of Homeland Security officials told Congress Wednesday.
Administration officials said they are more concerned about jihadists entering the U.S. legally on commercial airline flights.
Administration higher-ups testifying at a House hearing Wednesday threw cold water on scary border scenarios cited by conservatives such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
“We don’t have any credible information, that we are aware of, of known or suspected terrorists coming across the border,” Jennifer Lasley, a senior official in the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence and analysis office, told the House Homeland Security border security subcommittee.
Across the Capitol another top DHS official acknowledged that the agency has tracked online talk by ISIS backers about infiltrating the U.S. via the border.
“There have been Twitter, social media exchanges among (ISIS) adherents across the globe speaking about that as a possibility,” Francis Taylor, DHS undersecretary for intelligence, told Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) after he pressed him on the issue during a Senate committee hearing.
“Any infiltration across our border would be a threat,” Taylor agreed, but said he is “satisfied we have the intelligence and capability on the border that would prevent that activity.”
Lawmakers from border states, including Cruz and McCain, have said the threat from ISIS requires beefing up border security. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has said ISIS terrorists may already have crossed into the U.S.
Administration officials at the House hearing, which focused on ISIS fighters who hold western passports, said it is far more likely an extremist sympathetic to the group will try to enter the country by air.
“The number of known watch-listed persons we are encountering on the Southwest border is minimal compared to commercial aviation,” said John Wagner, assistant commissioner in the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol’s Office of Field Operations. “We’re talking tens versus thousands.”
U.S. intelligence estimates that about 100 American citizens are among about 12,000 foreigners fighting with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. At least three Americans have died fighting for ISIS, one in a suicide bombing.
“Our concern remains that these individuals, if radicalized, could return to their home countries or to the U.S., and use their newly acquired skills to carry out attacks,” Lasley testified.
“Although we currently have no credible information to indicate that [the Islamic State] is planning to attack the homeland,” she said, “we remain concerned in the long term.”
dfriedman@nydailynews.com
