SEE IT: Dem senator downplays security threat of illegal immigration after alleged White House terror plot
A longtime Senate Democrat declined to directly condemn illegal immigration as a national security threat after it was revealed the terror plot to ambush the UFC White House event Sunday night was schemed by an immigrant from Mexico.
Abraham Alvarez is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who overstayed his visa, according to Homeland Security information first obtained by Fox News Digital. He was identified as the alleged "ringleader" of a network of 23 individuals who planned to carry out a "mass casualty event" with explosive drones striking the White House on June 14.
After reports surfaced that Alvarez was the architect of the failed terror attack, Fox News Digital asked Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., if she views illegal immigration as a threat to the national security of the homeland.
"We have to have good national security grid watch, and we have to stop terrorist attacks," the Washington Democrat replied, keeping it ambiguous.
"I’ll look more into the specific details. Don’t know about it," she continued.
Alvarez, 31, failed to leave the country when his B2 visitor visa expired in 2001 after coming to the U.S. as a child. He was granted Dreamer status — deportation relief — by the Obama administration in 2014 through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and has remained in the U.S. ever since under that program.
Cantwell is not one of the Democrats who has adopted a particularly hard-line immigration stance in Congress. She has, however, repeatedly condemned aggressive immigration enforcement, particularly under the Trump administration.
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Cantwell has voted several times since President Donald Trump took office to challenge some efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) related to alleged racial profiling by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. She has encouraging immigration enforcement to not detain pregnant illegal immigrants and has backed investigation into the conditions of detention centers.
She also voted against the Laken Riley Act in January 2025, which requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain illegal immigrants who have been charged with certain crimes including theft, assault, burglary, shoplifting and more.
Along with Alvarez, five additional individuals have been arrested this month for assisting in the alleged terror plot to attack the White House UFC event over the weekend.
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Federal authorities said the motivation of the attack was related to government corruption, Israel’s influence on American politics and the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Alvarez, when asked in messages about explosive drones by a co-conspirator, said he wanted "as many and as deadly as we can get." Investigators also noted the suspect's goal was to target "capitalist elites," billionaires and politicians funded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Of the 23 identified in planning the terror attack, 18 have still not been charged.
Each suspect could face a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine, with a potential additional five years if also convicted of planning to carry out violence on White House grounds.