Tommy Tuberville and colleagues express concern about policy that allows terrorism supporters to immigrate to the U.S.

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Tommy Tuberville Photo Credit: https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/

On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville joined nine of his Senate colleagues in a letter to Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressing their concerns over their departments’ recent determination allowing individuals who provided “insignificant material support” or “limited material support” to terrorist organizations to legally immigrate to the United States. This determination which dates to June 8, changes the current U.S. immigration policy.

“We write because the American people deserve an explanation regarding the broad, open-ended nature of this authority for exempting individuals who would otherwise be barred from immigration to the United States for supporting a terrorist organization,” Tuberville and the other Senators wrote. “In contrast, the June 8 determination is not limited to certain conflicts, terrorist organizations, geographic regions, or time periods. Instead, it “broadly permits the admission of foreign individuals who provided material support to terrorist organizations that the Biden Administration deems insignificant or limited. This could include, for example, current or former members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and IRGC-linked entities, which are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. It could include individuals seeking asylum at the southern border.”

“The timing of the June 8 Determination, nearly a year after the Administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, also raises questions. If its intent is to ensure that Afghan refugees are able to gain asylum in the United States, there is no explanation regarding why this decision was not made months ago with prudent restrictions limiting its application to Afghan refugees,” the letter continued.

The Senators requested that Secretaries Mayorkas and Blinken provide a timely explanation and justification for this broad new authority, which they claim substantially changes U.S. immigration policy.

Sen, Tuberville was joined in the letter by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), Rick Scott (R-Florida), Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), and Steve Daines (R-Montana).

There does appear to be a renewed effort by terrorists to enter the United States.

“Democrats are more focused on raising your taxes than resolving the crisis at our southern border,” Tuberville said on social media. “In July alone, 10 people on the FBI’s terrorist watch list illegally crossed into the U.S.”

Thus far this year 66 individuals on the FBI’s terror watchlist have been apprehended trying to enter the United States. This is double the number of incidents that occurred in the last five years combined.

U.S. forces are continuing to fight the War on Terror. On Tuesday, airstrikes were conducted against militia bases linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Syria after a remote U.S. outpost was attacked by a drone that intelligence sources believe came from the groups. The airstrikes were ordered by President Joe Biden.

Tuberville is in his first term representing Alabama in the U.S. Senate after his election in 2020, where he defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-Alabama).

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