Extremists Without Borders

This week, world leaders are taking stock of global efforts to prevent the flow of foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq. As members of a bipartisan task force created by the House Committee on Homeland Security to review the issue, we believe urgent action is needed to stop more individuals from traveling to the conflict zone.

Today, after six months of examining the danger from foreign fighters, we are issuing our final report, which proposes ways to combat the threat.

There is no doubt the danger has worsened. Since mid-2014, the number of foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq has doubled, with individuals from over 100 countries — including the United States — now fighting in the conflict zone with groups like the Islamic State (IS).

Our concern is that these fighters could return to their home countries as trained terrorists to plot attacks, and already we have seen at least a dozen such cases, from here in the United States to distant European capitals.

Yet, even if they do not return to conduct acts of terror, foreign fighters can continue to radicalize other young people online and incite their peers back home to carry out violence.

For instance, there have been more than 60 IS-related arrests in the United States, the majority of which involved online radicalization — often from propaganda produced by foreign fighters in Syria or through social media.

We must do more to keep Americans from being recruited by these terrorists.

Our task force found that while authorities have gotten better at keeping violent extremist from getting into the country since 9/11, more needs to be done to keep Americans from leaving to train in jihadist safe havens.

Unfortunately, the speed at which individuals are being radicalized by violent extremists — and their use of secure communications — is straining federal law enforcement’s ability to monitor and intercept suspects.

As a result, U.S. authorities have only been able to stop a fraction of those who have tried to depart our country to fight in Syria. The overwhelming majority appear to have succeeded in leaving undetected. Several dozen have even managed to make it back into the United States after spending time in the conflict zone.

If we are going to combat this phenomenon, we also need to improve intelligence sharing.

However, our task force is concerned that foreign fighters are crossing borders more quickly than the information needed to stop them. For example, there is still no comprehensive global database of foreign fighter names, and most countries — including the United States — rely on a patchwork system for swapping extremist identities, increasing the odds foreign fighters will slip through the cracks.

We are not only concerned about the Americans who have gone to enlist with terrorist groups abroad. Thousands of Europeans who have fought in Syria and Iraq also have passports which could allow them to travel — without a visa — to the United States, yet some foreign governments are still struggling to identify these individuals. In many cases, our foreign partners also do not have the tools in place to detect suspicious travel and identify previously unknown extremists.

Our report provides an array of bipartisan proposals for defending against this rise in terrorist travel and to keep individuals from being lured overseas to become extremist foot soldiers. But our recommendations require action.

We hope the White House and key agencies will engage with Congress in order to implement these recommendations, and we look forward to working across the aisle to pass legislation that will confront the foreign fighter challenge decisively to secure our homeland.

The bipartisan Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel includes Rep. John Katko (Republican lead), Rep. Loretta Sanchez (Democratic Lead), Rep. Will Hurd, Rep. Martha McSally, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Rep. John Ratcliffe, Rep. Filemon Vela, and Rep. Donald Payne.

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