Several U.S. officials have stated that the Department of Homeland Security has confirmed that over four hundred illegal immigrants entered the United States through a human smuggling network affiliated with the terrorist organization ISIS. These individuals come from Central Asia and other regions, with more than fifty of them currently unaccounted for.
According to a report by NBC News, three U.S. officials informed the media that while over 150 of these illegal immigrants have been detained, there are still over fifty individuals whose whereabouts remain unknown. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is actively searching for them and plans to arrest them on immigration-related charges once located.
A senior official from the Biden administration stated, “In such situations, it is this information that makes us proceed with extra caution. Some of these individuals are involved in activities related to smuggling immigrants to the border, and this information suggests potential links to ISIS. Out of an abundance of caution, we want to ensure we exercise our power in the most comprehensive and appropriate manner to mitigate the risks associated with these potential connections.”
These government officials disclosed that many of the over four hundred immigrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and were released into the United States by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). These individuals were not on the U.S. government’s terrorism watchlist, and CBP did not receive any concerning information at the time.
Less than two weeks before the NBC News report, several media outlets, including CNN, reported the recent arrest of eight Tajik individuals believed to have ties to ISIS. After illegally crossing the southern U.S. border, they applied for asylum and are awaiting immigration case processing within the U.S. This incident raised concerns among U.S. national security officials, highlighting the possibility of a branch of the now divided terrorist organization launching attacks on U.S. soil.
These reports indicate that U.S. authorities linked these individuals to the terrorist organization ISIS based on intelligence gathered regarding ISIS’s overseas targets.
Of particular concern to U.S. officials is that these eight illegal immigrants originate from Tajikistan, where ISIS’s branch ISIS-K has been steadily recruiting members. ISIS-K, mainly led by Tajiks, has recently carried out a series of attacks in Europe, including the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall near Moscow in March, resulting in over a hundred casualties.
While the three U.S. officials who disclosed information to NBC News mentioned no evidence suggesting that these over four hundred illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. through an ISIS-affiliated network pose a threat to the homeland, counterterrorism investigators acknowledge that the whereabouts of over fifty individuals remain unknown, a worrisome situation.
Christopher O’Leary, former head of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division and current member of the security consultancy firm “Soufan Group,” expressed concern to NBC News, stating, “The fact that their whereabouts are unknown is clearly concerning.”
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General recently outlined inspection issues at the U.S. southern border, stating, “DHS’s technology, procedures, and coordination efforts have not effectively screened and vetted non-citizens seeking entry into the United States.”
The Republican-led House Committee on Homeland Security sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, June 24, requesting the unredacted report from the Inspector General’s office to “evaluate how DHS is addressing this critical national security issue.”