President-elect Donald Trump New “border czar” Tom Homan has issued a warning about the state of US national security in the wake of the terrorist attack in New Orleans and the explosion of a cyber truck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas on New Year's Day.
In an interview with America Reports on Thursday, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said… The United States is in imminent danger The southern border remains vulnerable to national security.
“We're not out of the woods,” Homan said. “This country is in grave danger. We need to secure that border, and despite what happened the last two days in Las Vegas and New Orleans, this administration is not stopping. They are still releasing thousands of people every week… without proper screening.”
Shams al-Din Jabbar appears in an undated photo released by the FBI after he was attacked on Bourbon Street in New Orleans with a pickup truck and died in a shootout with officers who responded to the attack. (FBI)
He continued: “We have a record number of known escapes. More than two million people have entered this country. We do not know who they are, where they came from, or what their purpose is in coming to this country.”
Homan said he looked forward to President-elect Donald Trump regaining “power” to “secure this border and protect our national security.”
His warning came after the suspect was identified Shams al-Din Jabbar As an ISIS flag fell on dozens of people in a New Year's parade on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 14 people and wounding more than 30 others. He was killed in a shootout with police.
Jabbar, a US citizen born in Texas, previously served in the US Army. Jabbar said in Facebook videos before the attack that he joined ISIS before the summer and made a will, according to the FBI.
Authorities were investigating a possible military connection between Jabbar and the suspect in Las Vegas, whom law enforcement identified to The Associated Press as Matthew Livelsperger. The active-duty U.S. Army Special Forces Operations Sergeant was on leave from Germany, where he was serving with the 10th Special Forces Group and most recently served as a Green Beret.
Livelsberger is suspected of being the driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Vegas On New Year's Day. The truck contained containers of gasoline and camp fuel, as well as large mortar shells for fireworks, according to officials.
When pressed on the nature of the attacks, Homan said he had a “gut feeling” that the New Orleans New Year's attack and the Las Vegas bombing were linked, although the FBI and police have found no evidence linking the two attacks at this stage of the investigation.
“This is a gut feeling. I've done this for three and a half decades. I think there are a lot of similarities,” Homan told Fox News anchor Sandra Smith. “A lot of coincidence. I think there is something in the future – they will show that there is some kind of connection… I could be wrong – it's just a gut feeling I have.”
Matthew Livelsperger rented a Tesla Cybertruck in Denver, Colorado, which exploded in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year's Day. (Alcides Antunes/via Reuters, left and Fox News, right.)
Noting both individuals' military backgrounds, Homan urged the incoming Trump administration to step up “insider threat analysis,” which he said the Biden administration has put on the back burner.
“We have two people who served in the military who (allegedly) committed these acts of terrorism. We really need to look for insider threats in our military and our federal service…” he warned.
The FBI said Thursday that investigators believe he is the suspect in the New Orleans terror attack She acted alonealthough a possible connection to the Tesla Cybertruck explosion was previously thought.
Both Jabbar and Levelsberger served at Fort Liberty – formerly known as Fort Bragg – in North Carolina, but a US official said there was no overlap in their duties there. They served at the same base, but at different times, and more than 50,000 American soldiers are currently stationed at Fort Liberty.
Tom Homan, Trump's next “border czar,” speaks with Fox News. (Fox News)
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“As you know, there is also an FBI investigation in Las Vegas. We are following up on all possible leads and are not ruling anything out. However, at this point, there is no specific connection between the attack here in New Orleans and the attack in the FBI,” said Christopher Raya, deputy assistant director of the FBI. Federal Counterterrorism Investigations told reporters Thursday, “Las Vegas.”
Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom and Daniel Wallace contributed to this report.
