‘Sharp increase’ of known or suspected terrorists entering U.S. from Canada, FBI director testifies

FBI Director Kash Patel testifies that a 'sharp increase of known or suspected terrorists' is entering the U.S. through Canada at the House Judiciary Committee.

FBI Director Kash Patel says there has been a “sharp increase of known or suspected terrorists” entering the U.S. through Canada.

He made the remarks during a U.S. house oversight hearing on Wednesday. Patel was responding to a question from Republican Congressman Kevin Kiley, who asked about the risk of terrorism posed by illegal border crossings.

Patel claimed that, since he rose to the helm of the bureau, there had been a significant drop in known or suspected terrorist crossings from the southern border, but a sharp increase from the north.

“What I’m trying to do is work with our northern border states, and our inter-agency, to tackle that problem,” said the director. “But it is an absolutely massive border that can’t physically be sealed. So we are going to have to get creative and put more resources into that.”

Earlier in the hearing, he said, “the enemy has adapted,” and that “we need more focus on the northern border” to keep known or suspected terrorists from crossing. He suggested those people are originally from places like China, Russia, the Mideast and Africa.

CTV News requested data and additional information from the FBI to corroborate Patel’s statements. In an email to CTVNews.ca, the bureau responded: “We have nothing to add to the Director’s congressional testimony.”

“It’s really hard to know from the outside looking in what that pattern looks like,” said former FBI counterterrorism official Javed Ali in an interview with CTVNews.ca.

“No country’s borders are impenetrable,” he added, attributing that challenge largely to natural geography and climate. The two countries share a frontier of nearly 9,000 kilometres of land and water.

Ali added that, during his time on the national security file, collaboration between U.S. and Canadian enforcement agencies had been “rock solid.”

Border data

According to U.S. customs data, there were 259 encounters with people who had terrorism-related records trying to cross by land from Canada from the start of the fiscal year to July 2025.

By contrast, there were 1,957 such encounters logged at the southern land border. However, with regard to both borders, the department notes its tally may include multiple encounters of the same individual.

In total, U.S. customs recorded 2,216 terrorism-related encounters at land borders so far in the 2025 fiscal year. Last year’s total was just 410, and there were 564 such encounters in 2023.

Noncitizens with terrorism-related records are usually found inadmissible and quickly “repatriated or removed,” according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.