Iran Issues Assassination Threat, and Our Open Borders May Help Its Leaders Make Good on It
FAIR Take | July 2024
A fortuitous turn of the head is all that prevented the assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a week ago. There is no evidence that the would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks, was associated with any foreign or domestic terror group. Nevertheless, the rank amateur came within an inch of killing the former president.
Eerily, Crooks’ failed effort to assassinate Trump came just days after the U.S. Secret Service received credible threats of an Iranian assassination plot against the former president. Iran has threatened retaliation against Trump (as well as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Advisor John Bolton) for the 2020 killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the mastermind of numerous terror attacks around the world.
Presumably, in the aftermath of last week’s near miss, the Secret Service and other national security agencies will be on heightened alert. But the threat they are now facing is significantly greater than that of a deranged 20-year-old lone wolf with his father’s hunting rifle. Iran controls a vast network of sophisticated proxy groups that operate all around the world. And, thanks to the open-borders policies of the current administration, there is every reason to suspect that Iran has had the opportunity to plant operatives on U.S. soil.
Record numbers of individuals on the terror watchlist have been encountered attempting to enter the U.S. illegally over the past few years, with some actually being released into our communities. Other illegal aliens with suspicious travel histories giving rise to concerns of a “nexus to terrorism,” known as Special Interest Aliens (SIAs), have also entered the U.S. in large numbers. Between October 2022 and August 2023, some 75,000 SIAs were encountered at our borders and many of them have made their way into the interior of the country. Additionally, approximately 1.8 million people are known to have crossed our borders illegally since the Biden administration took office, but eluded apprehension. These “gotaways” often have good reasons for not wanting to be encountered by border and national security authorities.
Iranian proxies operate from bases all across the globe. According to a January 2024 study published by the American Jewish Committee, one of the most dangerous of those groups, the Lebanese-based Hezbollah, “has established an extensive terror infrastructure in Europe along with terror networks in Latin America and Africa that enable it to carry out terrorist attacks on international soil.” European passport holders are able to enter the United States virtually at will under the Visa Waiver Program, while Latin America and Africa are the sources of a large share of the illegal migrants who have been pouring across our borders, most of whom are promptly released.
Iran’s hatred of the United States in general, and its desire for retribution for the killing of Soleimani in particular, provides the Iranian regime with the motive to attack not just former President Trump, but other American targets. Their global network of terror groups prepared to do Tehran’s bidding provides the means for them to attack us. Our own reckless policies that have allowed unprecedented numbers of people to infiltrate our country over the past three and half years have supplied the opportunity.
Iran’s threats against the United States are not limited to assassination plots against prominent U.S. political figures. Other recent reports indicate that they are playing an active role in fomenting and financing civil unrest in this country. Earlier this month, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned that “Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we’ve seen other actors use over the years.” These efforts include “actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.”
Former President Trump literally dodged a bullet last week in Pennsylvania, and the tumultuous American political system narrowly averted even greater turmoil than it is already experiencing. The threats posed by the leading state sponsor of global terrorism are far more serious. Those threats cannot be addressed solely by adding more Secret Service protection to prominent political figures. It must also be accompanied by enhanced security at our borders to prevent Iran and others from making good on their threats against the United States.