As press reports grow about Iran’s involvement in the Hamas terrorist group’s attack on Israel, another Tehran-funded terrorist group, Hezbollah, is cozying up to Latin dictators and making inroads into the Americas that could prove to be a security risk to the United States.

The Lebanese-based Iranian proxy operates an illicit network of terrorism and organized crime in Venezuela, embedded deep into the regime of President Maduro. Using Hezbollah operatives, Iran has masterminded terrorist attacks in other Latin American countries. At the same time, more and more figures on the FBI’s terrorist watch lists have infiltrated America’s southern border.

“Looking at our own intelligence failures, we have to look to our border,” Representative Kevin McCarthy told reporters Monday. Some 151 people on the FBI’s terrorist watch list were arrested at America’s southern border this year, the Republican Mr. McCarthy said. In 2019, there were zero.

“Why are they coming to America? What do they have planned? And who are they communicating with?” Mr. McCarthy said. “The no. 1 threat killing Americans is terrorism.” 

On Monday, the Hezbollah group threatened to attack American positions in the Middle East if it takes part in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. “If the US intervenes directly, all US positions in the region will become legitimate targets of the resistance axis and face our attacks. And on that day, there will be no red line,” a statement from Hezbollah said. 

After the Israel Defense Forces intercepted and killed a group of men who crossed the Lebanese border into the country Monday, the IDF air force demolished several Hezbollah observation posts in southern Lebanon. Four Hezbollah terrorists were killed in what could increase the risk of the organization entering the war. The Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, has already vowed “solidarity” with Iran-backed Hamas. 

For more than a decade, Venezuela has been a source of financial, political, and logistical support for Hezbollah. The group has established an extensive infrastructure for criminal activities such as drug trafficking and money laundering in the country. According to the American think tank Rand, Margarita Island, off the coast of Venezuela, has become a hub for members of the terrorist group.

The beachhead Hezbollah members established in Venezuela started during the Lebanese civil war, which ended in 1992. During that war, many Lebanese people fled to South America, according to a special agent of the Brazilian Federal Police, Christian Vianna de Azevedo. 

Since then, Hezbollah has been responsible for several terrorist strikes, including Argentina’s deadliest attack, the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center at Buenos Aires. The group also conducted the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy at Buenos Aires. More than 100 people died and 500 were injured.

The mastermind behind both attacks was the government of Iran. The current vice president of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and other members of the government allegedly covered up Iran’s role in the attack, according to a federal prosecutor, Alberto Nisman. He was found dead in his apartment on January 18, 2015, a day before he was expected to present his findings to congress.

Republican critics of President Biden have warned that his border policies are increasing the threat of terrorism in America. “The reality is that his open border is the gravest terrorist threat to the homeland in years,” Senator Cotton wrote in an article marking the terrorist attacks against America on September 11, 2001.

In June, a report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General said Customs and Border Protection released a migrant in 2022 who was later found on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist. The report called CBP’s practices “ineffective” and said it “risks releasing individuals into the United States who potentially threaten national security and public safety.”