KEN CUCCINELLI: Biden opened our border to Iranian terrorism threats

In the tense days pursuing the U.S. drone onslaught that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani connected Jan. 3, 2020, Iran responded with rocket barrages connected American bases successful Iraq, injuring scores of radical but deliberately avoiding fatalities. Tehran promised "harsh retaliation," but nary attacks struck U.S. soil. The crushed wasn’t deterrence unsocial oregon diplomatic restraint but thing simpler: Iran lacked operational assets wrong the United States.

At the time, the authorities had lone scattered sympathizers, not embedded networks susceptible of executing homeland strikes. U.S. quality assessments aft the onslaught highlighted threats overseas but noted nary credible, circumstantial home dangers due to the fact that Iran’s scope stopped abbreviated of American borders.

Secure frontiers and rigorous vetting nether the Trump medication ensured that imaginable operatives couldn’t infiltrate U.S. defenses easily. Encounters with Iranians astatine the U.S. confederate borderline averaged little than 20 annually from 2000 to 2019. The homeland remained insulated from the menace of coercion from Iran.

Now, successful March 2026, arsenic U.S. and Israeli forces destruct Iran’s atomic sites and tyrannical enactment successful Operation Epic Fury — sidesplitting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and sparking determination responses — the calculus has shifted perilously. Iran has fired missiles connected U.S. outposts successful Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and beyond.

Fox News drones captured footage of a monolithic radical of amerciable borderline crossers successful Eagle Pass, Texas. (Fox News)

But the gravest hazard simmers wrong the United States: imaginable activation of sleeper cells oregon lone actors connected American soil. This vulnerability stems straight from 4 years of open-borders policies nether President Joe Biden, who flung doors wide unfastened to unchecked immigration, swelling Iran’s excavation of sympathizers successful the United States and perchance embedding assets astatine the regime’s behest.

US ON HIGH ALERT FOR IRANIAN SLEEPER CELLS, PROXIES

After the Soleimani strike, Iran’s plots against the U.S. homeland were aspirational astatine best. The authorities planned assassinations of U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump and erstwhile National Security Advisor John Bolton, arsenic revenge for the general’s death. Yet these fizzled nether vigilant counterterrorism efforts and gained nary operational foothold successful the United States.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bulletins warned of Iran’s intentions to usage proxies specified arsenic Hezbollah, but emphasized its deficiency of contiguous capableness to transportation retired home attacks. Borders acted arsenic a bulwark; Trump’s "maximum pressure" sanctions and law-based migration enforcement choked infiltration routes. Iranian-backed networks lurked successful South America’s tri-border area, but U.S. enforcement chopped disconnected their northward paths.

Biden’s reversal of these policies invited chaos. Starting connected Inauguration Day, helium dismantled the borderline wall, axed the precise palmy "Remain successful Mexico" policy, and allowed catch-and-release numbers to balloon. Over 10 cardinal encounters with amerciable immigrants followed, including surges from terrorism-prone nations. Apprehensions of Iranians skyrocketed: Border Patrol arrested 1,504 Iranian nationals from fiscal twelvemonth 2021 to 2024—a twentyfivefold leap from the 2 anterior decades.

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Alarmingly, 729 of them were released into the United States, often aft scant vetting amid overwhelmed systems. This wasn’t specified oversight; policies specified arsenic expanded asylum loopholes and deportation reluctance efficaciously welcomed risks. In June 2025, ICE rounded up 11 Iranians illegally contiguous successful the country, including a erstwhile service sniper, a Revolutionary Guard member, and a Hezbollah affiliate — each of whom had slipped successful during Biden’s tenure. Intelligence flagged 35 much Iranians plotting cartel-aided crossings that aforesaid month.

These entrants expanded Iran’s basal of sympathizers and perchance provided enactment for assets of the Iranian regime. Border Czar Tom Homan decried the fueling of "sleeper cells," a sentiment echoed successful DHS alerts astir Iran’s usage of proxies amid escalating conflicts. Biden’s attack to migration didn’t conscionable strain resources; it extended an invitation to adversaries. As 1 nationalist information adept enactment it, U.S. borders became a "sieve" done which planetary threats could pass. Hezbollah’s long-standing Latin American hubs funneled operatives north, exploiting the lax borderline enforcement.

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Today, with Khamenei dormant and Iran’s authorities cornered, desperation mounts. Trump warns of Tehran’s atomic brinkmanship. Experts foresee retaliation against the U.S. homeland done infiltrated cells — cells apt planted during the Biden administration. Texas Governor Greg Abbott urges vigilance against "sleeper cells oregon lone wolves," and erstwhile Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe calls for elevated alerts implicit infiltration. A caller shooting successful Austin, Texas, tied to an Iran-linked fishy heightens fears of violent attacks astatine home.

The detonation of hazard is profound. In 2020, Iran’s dearth of assets spared the homeland. Now, Biden’s migration policies person stocked a tinderbox of sympathizers and unknowns, acceptable for conflagration. Averting – oregon astatine slightest minimizing – catastrophe requires sealing the borders, reviving stringent vetting and expelling threats. These are each steps the Trump medication has pursued aggressively, but we indispensable perpetrate to support specified a people for years to travel and ne'er fto our state inflict specified risks upon itself ever again.

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