The Manufactured Crisis of Migrant Terrorists at the Border

Since late 2020, Border Patrol along the United States-Mexico border has encountered over 6.9 million illegal crossers. A recent Pew Research survey reveals that 57 percent of respondents consider "dealing with immigration" a top policy priority this election year--just below "defending against terrorism" at 63 percent. Amid this backdrop, politicians and pundits have been quick to conflate these issues, holding numerous congressional hearings on the purported threat of terrorists entering the U.S. to commit acts of terror. This has given rise to a flood of rhetoric about said terrorists exploiting border chaos to harm Americans. Despite this fearmongering, the actual threat of foreign- born terrorism is relatively minor and manageable. New research from the Cato Institute indicates that since 1975, the annual likelihood of an American being murdered in a foreigner- committed terrorist attack is about one in 4.5 million.