The number of potential terrorists entering the United States illegally keeps increasing, and is likely to reach record levels this year.

Before I dive into this disturbing story, take note: border “encounters” only take place when the Border Patrol actually apprehends an illegal migrant. Given how many “gotaways” there are, and how little effort there is these days to catch them, the fact that anybody on the terror watchlist is caught entering the country is something of a miracle.

Number of illegal migrants caught on terror watchlist on pace to hit new record https://t.co/cRgBRQPBnT

— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) December 24, 2023

In November, for instance, the Border Patrol arrested 17 people who were on the terror watchlist trying to enter the United States. For the fiscal year so far, and I think we can be sure that the number keeps increasing, the total is 31.

Given how easy it is now to enter the US illegally, it seems reasonable to assume that these are the “bottom of the barrel” potential terrorists. The ones not caught could easily inspire nightmares.

(Daily Caller News Foundation) — The number of illegal migrants on the terror watchlist caught by Border Patrol in the first two months of the new fiscal year puts 2024 on pace to hit a new record, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data updated Friday.

Border Patrol has recorded a total of 31 illegal migrants whose names appeared on the terror watchlist so far in fiscal year 2024, 13 of which were caught in October, according to the data. Border Patrol recorded 172 encounters of migrants whose names appeared on the watchlist in fiscal year 2023, 98 in fiscal year 2022 and 16 in fiscal year 2021, according to federal data.

Federal authorities warned Border Patrol to keep watch for Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah terrorists possibly crossing the southern border illegally after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on civilians in Israel, according to an internal memo exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

For groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups tied to Iran, the United States is the Great Satan, and Israel is only the “little Satan.” It seems implausible to me that Iranian allies aren’t trying to smuggle terrorists and terror cells into the country, given how easy it is to enter the country through our Southern border.

What is so perplexing to me about Biden’s border policy is not so much his manifest desire to flood the country with illegal migrants; he has made clear again and again that he wants an open border, and I suspect it corresponds with an electoral strategy.

Instead, my perplexity relates to the obvious political risk attached to this strategy; should a terrorist attack happen, no amount of illegal votes harvested from illegal aliens who have been given drivers licenses and registered to vote automatically (as happens in a number of states) could counterbalance the outrage of Americans if they learn that Biden’s policies allowed terrorists into the country to conduct an attack.

The electoral strategy, if as I suspect, that is what the open borders policy is, is illegal, immoral, and an attack on our Democracy. Hence, it is a perfect policy for a cynical Democrat politician.

But that strategy runs the risk of not only a terrorist attack–and I have to hope that somebody in our political elite still cares about that–but of an electoral backlash of significant magnitude.

Do the Biden people really think there is no risk to their open borders policy? Do they think the risk is worth the prize of stealing elections? Or are they just amazingly stupid?

You tell me.