Since last fall, the FBI’s head of the agency has noted that the prosecutions of suspected terrorists and suspected terrorists have quickly decreased at the Mexican and border but are significantly higher on the Canadian border.
As a result of the decline in” known or suspected terrorists” on the southern borders, they have been and continue to be great along the northern border, according to FBI Director Kash Patel‘s disclosure to lawmakers on Wednesday in the House, Permanent Select, and Committee on, Intelligence.
At the southern border, known or suspected jihadists are entering significantly less frequently. In reality, if my information is accurate, there have been two in the northern border since January 20 and they are coming in much more frequently,” said Patel during a hearing on risks to the United States from other countries.
Rep. French Hill (R-AR ) reacted by saying,” Since January 20, that number is 34 .” But what it says to me is that we need to redirect our assets up there because known or suspected terrorists are the ones who want to do the most damage to this country.
According to Patel, terrorist affiliates are trying to enter another country because of” the successes we’ve had in closing the southern border.”
Only 13 suspected jihadists have been nabbed attempting to enter the United States from Mexico between the property ports of entry in governmental 2025, which includes from October 2024 through February this year, according to information posted online by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
At the same border, 103 and 169 suspected jihadists were detained, both, in governmental 2023 and 2024.
The ports of entry, which include land, water, and air ships, have the highest rates for detention along the northern borders. 143 suspected jihadists were apprehended by customs officers in the first five weeks of 2025, making the total on par with 358 for the year before, which was among the highest ever decades in recorded history.
However, worries about who or what is crossing the country’s borders were not left to bad actors.
Fentanyl is being transported across both the southern border and the north border, according to Patel.
The Mexican cartels are not just taking the fight down south, but they are also bringing it up north, according to Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL ).” In addition to their illicit partners in the [ China Communist Party ] and other adversarial countries that are doing harm, they are taking the fight down south. So we need to be more watchful of what enters through our northern borders as well.
In fiscal 2025, CBP officers seized 12 weight of fentanyl along the entire northern border, including at ports of entry and between the ships, compared to 6, 000 weight across the southern borders, according to national statistics.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION USES PUBLIC VISUAL Dangers AS IMMIGRATION Barriers
More partnership with the American government is the best way to combat illegal immigration and medicine smuggling up north, according to Patel, who was lately confirmed as the FBI’s chief following a contentious voting in the Senate.
Because much of it is so distant, the northern border is almost twice as long as the southern border, which also lacks a border wall.
