In addition to being in a perpetual state of national emergency due to terrorist threats since Sept. 11, 2001, the United States is also under several decades-long national emergencies that President Joe Biden extended by executive order.
The orders were extended after the FBI and members of Congress have warned of increased terrorism threats in the last year and as the greatest number of illegal border crossers have been identified on the terrorist watch list under the Biden-Harris administration in U.S. history.
On Sept. 18, Biden extended an executive order, “Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Persons who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism,” for another year. It’s been extended since Sept. 23, 2001, when it was issued by former president George W. Bush.
The order declares a national emergency pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. It cites “the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the grave acts of terrorism and threats of terrorism committed by foreign terrorists, including the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, … and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks against United States nationals or the United States.”
Biden also extended another executive order issued by former President Donald Trump on Sept. 9, 2019, “to strengthen and consolidate sanctions to combat the continuing threat posed by international terrorism and to take additional steps to deal with the national emergency.”
After a U.S. House report highlighted over 50 Islamic terrorist-related cases in 29 states in the last two years and ongoing warnings about potential Islamic terrorist attacks, Biden extended another national emergency related to Syria.
Trump issued the order on Oct. 14, 2019, which Biden extended “to continue in effect beyond October 14, 2024,” the order states.
“The situation in and in relation to Syria undermines the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, endangers civilians, and further threatens to undermine the peace, security, and stability in the region, and continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” it says.
On Oct. 11, Biden extended another national emergency executive order related to Colombia-based narcotics trafficking. Former President Bill Clinton first issued the order on Oct. 21, 1995, in the middle of a decades-long bipartisan “war on drugs.”
“The circumstances that led to the declaration of a national emergency on October 21, 1995, have not been resolved,” Biden’s order states.
“The actions of significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and to cause an extreme level of violence, corruption, and harm in the United States and abroad.”
On Oct. 11, Biden also extended a national emergency order related to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, first issued by former President George W. Bush on Oct. 27, 2006. Former President Barack Obama extended and amended it on July 8, 2014; Biden extended it through Oct. 27, 2025.
“The situation in or in relation to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has been marked by widespread violence and atrocities that continue to threaten regional stability, continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States,” the order states.
This is after Biden in February extended a national emergency order related to Afghanistan after first issuing it on Feb. 11, 2022. It relates to “the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States constituted by” turmoil in Afghanistan after Biden relinquished control to the Taliban six months earlier.
Despite the national emergency, the Biden-Harris administration released 77,000 Afghans into the U.S. through “Operation Allies Welcome” program. The majority weren’t properly vetted, according to an Inspector General report. One of them was recently arrested for plotting an Election Day terrorist attack on American soil.
U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Republicans have increasingly raised concerns about national security threats, arguing they are preventable but worsened by Biden-Harris administration policies. Its chairman, Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., recently demanded answers from the FBI and DHS about threats posed by Afghans released into the U.S. and about ISIS-collaborators.
Recent arrests “raise serious concerns about the ongoing threat that ISIS and its fanatical supporters pose to U.S. national security, as well as the shortfall in the Biden-Harris administration’s screening and vetting capabilities,” Green said. “The Committee also remains concerned about the threat of a ‘lone wolf’ actor or multiple actors attempting to commit a terrorist attack on U.S. soil.”
While law enforcement officers have so far foiled alleged terrorist acts, those planning them never should have been allowed into the country, Green argues.
