Refugees and Terrorism Investigations
President Donald Trump’s new executive order on foreign nationals entering the U.S. says “more than 300″ refugees in the United States “are currently the subjects of counterterrorism investigations.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions repeated that figure in his remarks on the new order. But it is a statistic without any context.
The White House and Department of Justice have declined to provide the total number of “counterterrorism investigations” underway or how it defines the term “counterterrorism investigation.” That’s important context, because FBI guidelines allow “three levels of investigation to address a potential threat to national security,” beginning with “assessments” — which do not require “any particular factual predication,” as explained in a 2014 inspectors general report.
“In recent years, the F.B.I. has averaged 10,000 assessments annually, and 7,000 to 10,000 preliminary or full investigations involving international terrorism,” the New York Times reported last year.
On the same day that Trump signed the executive order, Reuters , “The FBI is investigating 300 people who were admitted into the United States as refugees as part of 1,000 counterterrorism investigations involving Islamic State or individuals inspired by the militant
