Conservatives Warn Southern Border Leaves America as Vulnerable as Israel

As violent conflict continues between Israel and Palestine-based Hamas, conservatives in the U.S. are warning that open-borders policies and the leftist weaponization of defense and law enforcement institutions are leaving America vulnerable to similar attacks.

In an interview on Monday, former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) cautioned, “We should wake up ourselves. We could have the same thing happen next week to us.” He added, “We caught more people on the terrorist watchlist in February than we caught in the entire administration. We could have cells sitting inside of America right now. … Your intel is never perfect, and we’ve got a wide-open border. They’re coming from 160 different countries.”

Former President Donald Trump said much the same, posting on social media, “The same people that raided Israel are pouring into our once beautiful USA, through our TOTALLY OPEN SOUTHERN BORDER, at Record Numbers. Are they planning an attack within our Country?” Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) echoed that statement, saying, “Thanks to Biden’s open borders there’s been hundreds cross into the US that we know were on terrorist watch lists. Millions of military aged males have poured across our borders. Not refugees with women and children, and not just from Central/ S. America. We must immediately shutdown our borders!”

Pointing to the violence in the Middle East, Republican presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called on the U.S. to “immediately shut down America’s wide-open southern border to ensure we are in a position to better protect Americans here at home from these real threats.” Delivering a speech in Iowa on Monday night, DeSantis continued to point to the vulnerability created by Biden’s open border, asking, “Do you think our enemies, knowing that we have an open border, are not taking advantage of that? … There’s going to be a terrorist attack in this country that we’re going to be able to trace back to the southern border.”

Adding to the concern, a new Homeland Security report warns that Border Patrol agents have caught more than 24,000 migrants from China crossing illegally into the U.S. this fiscal year — including 11,000 just since June. That’s a 1,115% increase from FY 2021 when American officials encountered 1,987 from the communist country. 

Appearing on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” on Monday night, Family Research Council’s Executive Vice President Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. Boykin was asked if the U.S. may find itself in a similar position as Israel given the unprotected southern border. Boykin answered, “I think the answer to that is … an unequivocal yes. That same kind of thing could happen to America.” He added, “[I]f we don’t make some very clear decisions in terms of what we are going to do in our military as well as our intelligence services, and that includes the FBI, we’re going to see the same thing. … [T]hey’re still out there. They still want to destroy us.” When asked if the southern border made America vulnerable to terrorist attacks, Boykin noted that radical jihadist terrorist groups don’t just want to destroy Israel but to “unite” across the world, adding, “Again, we’ve got to wake up and understand that we could be next.”

Chris Mitchell, the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Middle East Bureau Chief, also appeared on “Washington Watch” on Monday, discussing how terrorist groups capitalized on vulnerabilities in Israel’s border. He reported, “Just a little while ago, there were six infiltrators that came in across the border. So that’s something key to watch out what happens on the northern border.” Mitchell also detailed what measures Israel has taken to further secure its borders, explaining, “It looks like all the communities on the southern border have been taken back control by the IDF [Israeli Defense Force], although 15 of the 24 communities there on the southern border have been evacuated.” He also noted that some 300,000 military reservists have been mobilized to defend Israel’s southern border, quipping, “I think it’s the fastest call up within 48 hours that Israel has had in its history.”

Since October 2022, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has encountered 149 illegal immigrants entering the U.S. via the southern border who were listed on the federal Terrorist Watch List. A recent congressional report found that nearly 2.2 million illegal immigrants have entered the U.S. in 2023 alone, many of whom Biden’s DHS has failed to track.