Original air date: October 27th 2024

Iran’s backing of terrorism has been a critical concern in the Mideast. But it’s also a real worry here. Particularly with millions of unknown foreigners crossing illegally into the US recent years. Lisa Fletcher has more.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

Homan: I’ve said, the last four years, my biggest concern is this open border was the biggest national security vulnerability this country has ever seen.

Border czar Tom Homan believes years of open borders have left America vulnerable.

Homan: So I pulled numbers this morning, just from a CBP under Joe Biden, there was 1,272 nationals of Iran released in the country.. and you compare that the trump administration zero, right? zero releases.

Homan: Over two million people crossed that board, who don’t know who they are, where they came from, because they got away, because border patrol was so overwhelmed with the humanitarian crisis that Biden created, that over two people crossed the border and got away.

For example: Eagle Pass, Texas – a crucial point on the US-Mexico border that full measure has visited several times, including back in 2023 and 2024.

For much of the Biden administration, this area saw tens of thousands of illegal crossings into the u-s by people from more than 160 countries.

Saryl: hola bienvenido

This group tells us they’ve just come in from Honduras and Venezuela.

Since President Trump returned to the WhiteHouse in January, crossing have dramatically decreased but there’s growing concern over potential threats from people who’ve already crossed into the U.S.— especially at a time of extreme tension with Iran, a nation with a long history of sponsoring terrorist attacks.

In October 2023, customs and border protection agents arrested an Iranian man who crossed here in Eagle Pass –

Just last weekend U.S. immigration and customs enforcement arrested 11 Iranian nationals illegally in the united states.. one was a former Iranian army sniper, another admitted having ties to Hezbollah.

Part of a trend of illegal migrants from countries the U.S. has identified as terrorism hotspots.

Retired air force brigadier general Robert Spalding served as a senior director of the national security council in the first Trump administration we talked to him last September.

Spalding (14:18): the Iranians, though, the religious fervor that’s associated with that regime is of a different character than the Russians, the Chinese or the north Koreans who are all atheists. so i think that brings an element into it when you bring nuclear weapons into it, that i think could be very, very dangerous.

Spalding believes a focus on Iran’s nuclear program highlights the ongoing danger from the most destructive weapons on earth.

Spalding: a terrorist attack is bad. it creates a lot of spectacle. it does create attention in media, but it is nothing. it is nothing compared to nuclear war. and i think me personally, we were so close to Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of world war ii and the subsequent decades that there was still palpable fear. I mean, there were still images of what happened in those cities, and it wasn’t 3000 people. i mean, it was hundreds of thousands of people. that’s the scale of difference. And i think when we stop thinking about that and being concerned about that and being afraid of that, then we actually have allowed these conditions to materialize that bring us closer to it. that’s to me, the most fearful thing that we face right now. it has never gone away. it’s still there.

Lisa: how much of a threat remains from groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic state?

Spalding: well, i think it’s the same threat that it’s always been, and i don’t think it was ever an existential threat. the threat comes less so from a physical ability to change the character of western civilization and more ideological, i think. and in there has to be some recognition that in many cases, those regimes that follow more of a religious bent, that they do not in the same way that the Chinese or the Russians, north Koreans, they don’t agree with western civilization. they don’t agree with that. women should be educated, for example. and these are things that they want to tear down. and so this is why, by the way, i call it the digital cold war because what’s different about today is that there are these digital tools that allow these ideologies to be propagated directly to the western world and directly to these citizens. and so we’re seeing manifestations of that. i mean, the antisemitism that has grown within the united states is off the charts and where’s it coming from? it’s coming from that same stuff that was coming on TikTok, supporting Hamas and saying Israel’s and evil, an evil regime. and so we have to recognize that the threats, although the ones that are flashy, are the terrorist attacked, the real threat is coming directly into our communities, coming directly into our homes. and it’s this digital threat that is slowly changing the character, I believe, of the free world.

Spalding: if you agree that we’re in a cold war and you agree that there is alignment, at least alignment between China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, well then you can see that if there’s a campaign going on anywhere in the world, let’s say let’s pick Taiwan. if there’s something going on over Taiwan and you are not quite sure who’s come across the southern border, then if you do have something going on there, then you’re likely to see things happening here. and those things could be infrastructure attacks or terrorist attacks. i believe infrastructure attacks are far more probable because of the implications to our greater society.

Lisa: some have recently said that the terrorism warning lights are blinking red again, just as they were before 9/11. do you agree with that?

Spalding: i agree that we’ve taken a number of actions that have brought the situation into the country.

Lisa: what’s the worst thing we’ve done?

Spalding: well, i mean it’s really the southern border. i mean, we just have no idea who’s come across the border.

Lisa: For Full Measure, I’m Lisa Fletcher in Washington.

Watch video here.