Democrats Accused Kevin McCarthy Of Lying About Terrorists Crossing The Border. Then Axios Confirmed The Story

Four people on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database have been arrested at the southern border since the beginning of October, the Customs and Border Protection agency told Congress on Tuesday, according to Axios.

The report comes one day after congressional Democrats accused House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of lying when he said during a press conference Monday that people on the terrorist watch list from Yemen, Iran and Turkey have been caught trying to cross the southern border.

“When you go up to Monument Three and you talk to those agents, it’s not just people from Mexico or Honduras or El Salvador. They’re now finding people from Yemen, Iran, Turkey,” McCarthy said on Monday outside a migrant processing center in El Paso. “People on the terrorist watch list they are catching.”

Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona said in a tweet Monday he was “pretty sure” McCarthy was “either wrong or lying.”

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Axios confirmed on Tuesday that CBP had arrested four people on the Terrorist Screening Database since Oct. 1, three of which were from Yemen and one who was from Serbia, citing a congressional aide that was briefed on the conversation.

Gallego’s insinuation on Monday that McCarthy was “either wrong or lying” about suspected terrorists being arrested crossing the southern border received widespread media coverage. His comments received coverage in The Washington Post, the Daily Beast, MSNBC, Business Insider, the Independent and Vox.

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Texas Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar said Monday that McCarthy’s claims of terrorists crossing the border were being used to “fuel the divisions” in America and stoke fear against immigrants.

“We saw my Republican colleagues stoke fear and anger toward immigrants, fuelling that xenophobia. You know, the whole immigrants-bringing-diseases-into-our-country kind of thing,” Escobar said, according to the Independent.

McCarthy and a dozen other Republican members of the House visited a detention center in El Paso on Monday amid the worst surge of migrant crossings in the last 20 years.

The Republican lawmakers said President Joe Biden’s immigration policies and his slow response is to blame for the surge.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested on Friday the GOP’s renewed focus on the border was merely an effort to peel attention away from the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill signed into law on Thursday, which polls show is supported by about 70% of Americans.

“I guess their Dr. Seuss approach didn’t work for them. Now they have to change the subject,” Pelosi said.