{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-mayorkas-american-people-have-a-right-to-know-who-is-crossing-southern-border", "Cotton to Mayorkas: American People Have a Right to Know Who is Crossing Southern Border", "2024-09-05", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler orPatrick McCann (202) 224-2353\n\nSeptember 5, 2024\n\nCotton to Mayorkas: American People Have a Right to Know Who is Crossing Southern Border\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today wrote a letter to Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas expressing his concern over the refusal to disclose the nationality of individuals on the FBI\u2019s terror watchlist who illegally crossed the southern U.S. border. Senator Cotton questioned the justification of protecting the \u201cpersonal privacy\u201d of suspected illegal alien terrorists and suggested that the decision to withhold information is a politically motivated attempt to hide evidence of the Biden-Harris border crisis.\n\nFull text of the letter may be found here and below.\n\nSeptember 5, 2024\n\nThe Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas\n\nSecretary, Department of Homeland Security\n\nWashington, D.C. 20528\n\nDear Secretary Mayorkas,\n\nI write about troubling reports that the Department of Homeland Security is refusing to disclose the nationalities of FBI terror watchlist suspects who illegally crossed the southern border.\n\nIn October 2023, Fox News filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking disclosure of the nationalities of FBI terror watchlist suspects who unlawfully crossed the southern border. A letter denying Fox News\u2019 request stated that your agency is \u201ccommitted to protecting the identity of individuals\u201d on the terror watchlist, and that the request was an \u201cinvasion of personal privacy.\u201d Your agency asserted that the \u201cprivacy interests\u201d of illegal-alien terrorists \u201cfar outweigh whatever public interest, if any, exists in having their information released.\u201d\n\nYour letter also dubiously claimed that terrorist organizations could exploit nationality information by \u201cinfer[ring] a large percentage of its operatives from a particular nationality\u201d raise fewer terrorism red flags. Of course, if the Biden-Harris administration impartially enforced our laws and deported illegal aliens regardless of their origin, terrorists wouldn\u2019t be able to game the system in the manner you describe.\n\nI suspect that the real reason you\u2019re unlawfully withholding this information about terror suspects\u2019 nationalities isn\u2019t due to privacy or security concerns, but rather partisan concerns that it would alarm the American people. Once again, you\u2019re attempting to hide evidence of the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s border crisis.\n\nBut the American people have a right to know who is crossing our border, especially when those illegal aliens have ties to terrorism. And that right, contrary to your bizarre assertion, \u201cfar outweighs\u201d the privacy rights of illegal aliens suspected of terrorism. Honestly, I can\u2019t believe I even have to write that sentence.\n\nCongress has an oversight interest in this information as well. Therefore, please provide my office with the information sought in the Freedom of Information Act request made by Fox News no later than September 10.\n\nSincerely,\n\n____________________\n\nTom Cotton\n\nUnited States Senator\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:43:57Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-mayorkas-american-people-have-a-right-to-know-who-is-crossing-southern-border"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9940990023314953, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}