Six Russian-linked terrorism suspects with ties to ISIS have infiltrated the United States from the southern border, with federal authorities suspecting they were planning some kind of attack in multiple cities. The suspects were recently apprehended by a joint operation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and are being held in immigration detention pending deportation.
As early as April this year, FBI Director Chris Wray warned in a congressional hearing that the U.S. could face a terrorist incident similar to the one orchestrated by ISIS in a Moscow music hall.
In March this year, a mass shooting occurred at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, resulting in the deaths of 145 people. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack.
“Our most pressing concern was that individuals or small groups would draw distorted inspiration from events in the Middle East to launch attacks domestically,” Wray told a congressional subcommittee at the time. “But now, what is increasingly worrisome is the possibility of coordinated attacks domestically, similar to the ISIS-K attack we saw in the Russian music hall a few weeks ago.”
ISIS-K is a radical Islamic organization established in 2014 that originally targeted Russia but now poses a potential threat to the United States or other Western countries.
In a recent joint operation in Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia, the ICE, in coordination with the FBI’s counterterrorism task force, arrested six illegal immigrants with ties to ISIS, as reported exclusively by the New York Post.
These individuals had entered illegally from the southern border, with one being previously arrested by southern border officials but later released, scheduled for an immigration court hearing next year. However, the FBI later discovered this person’s connection to ISIS and overheard him discussing bomb-related matters.
“Remember the Boston Marathon bombing case? I am concerned that something similar could happen again, or even worse,” an ICE official told the Post.
According to a report by CNN last year, the FBI has been investigating whether dozens of immigrants from Uzbekistan crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with the help of a Turkish smuggler associated with the Islamic State.
Federal data reveals a sharp increase in the number of immigrant arrests related to terrorist connections at the southern border, rising from 11 people in fiscal years 2017-2020 to 362 people by April in fiscal years 2021-2024.
Border enforcement officers informed the Post that due to the high volume of daily illegal crossings, potential terrorists are inevitably slipped in accidentally.
On May 10, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a public advisory warning that foreign terrorist organizations may target “Pride Parades” celebrating the LGBTQ community, though the advisory did not specify any locations or indicate tracking of specific threats.
The Biden administration recently implemented a new border policy halting asylum claims for illegal border crossers until daily apprehensions drop below 1,500 individuals.
However, immigrants continue to steadily cross the border. According to New York immigration attorney Chen Chuangchuang, newly arrived immigrants reveal that the flow of immigrants along established routes has not decreased, with “one to two hundred people every day. In the first four months of this year, over 100 Chinese people were caught at the border daily, with another two hundred who were not caught.”
Border data indicates that just last weekend, patrol agents recorded approximately 10,000 incidents of illegal border crossings at the southern border.