George P Bush says suspected ISIS plot against uncle highlights need to secure southern border

George P Bush on Tuesday said that the suspected ISIS assassination plot against his uncle highlights the “national security crisis” at the southern border — after it was revealed that the alleged plan to smuggle collaborators over from Mexico.

The Department of Justice announced that an Iraqi citizen, Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, living in Columbus, Ohio has been charged with aiding and abetting a plot to kill former President George W. Bush.

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The statement added that the suspect originally came to the United States in September 2020 on a visitor visa and filed for asylum in March 2021 which is pending review. Shihab is alleged to have exchanged money with other individuals in an attempt to illegally smuggle foreign nationals into the United States and specifically planned to help four Iraqi nationals come into the United States across the southern border to help kill Bush.

“It just underscores the need for a perspective that this is a national security crisis that’s occurring on our southern border,” George P Bush said in an interview with Fox News. 

“I’m a military veteran who served in Afghanistan specializing in high value targets and spectacular attacks from ISIS and also the Taliban. And this is what I’ve been talking about on the southern border, that if we have a porous and open border policy, it welcomes people,” he said. “And even the Biden’s administration estimated that 23 members of the FBI terrorist watch list came across our border. Imagine the amount of undetected terrorists that that came through our borders.”

“And so this confirms the national security issues and underscores the importance of securing our border,” he said.

Bush, who is currently land commissioner and is running to be Texas’ attorney general, said that he wants more “boots on the ground” at the border, as well as more lawyers and legal resources “to arrest folks under criminal trespassing claims.”

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“And I would work with farmers and ranchers to make sure that we’re continuing the construction of the Texas wall, which is what, by the way, I’ve been doing on state acreage as land commissioner. So we need to continue that work,” he said. “But as a top lawyer, make sure we arrest folks so we understand the threat matrix and whether or not they present a national security risk.”

The charging document states that Shihab launched the plot “in retaliation of Iraqi deaths during “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” It is unclear if any steps have been taken to increase security around former President Bush. 

“President Bush has all the confidence in the world in the United States Secret Service and our law enforcement and intelligence communities,” Freddy Ford, chief of staff for the Office of George W. Bush, said in a statement.

Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.