ICE Arrests Eight Foreign Nationals with Suspected Ties to ISIS By Haley Strack
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/ice-arrests-eight-foreign-nationals-with-suspected-ties-to-isis/
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested eight foreign nationals with ties to the terrorist group ISIS-K, an Afghan branch of the Islamic State, over the past week.
“Over the last few days, ICE agents arrested several non-citizens pursuant to immigration authorities,” the Department of Homeland Security and FBI told the New York Post, which first reported the story, in a statement. “The actions were carried out in close coordination with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The individuals arrested are detained in ICE custody pending removal proceedings . . . The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security. ”
ICE arrested the ISIS-K-linked Tajikistani nationals in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia this week.
FBI director Christopher Wray warned of potential threats from ISIS-K in April, specifically saying that, “increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia concert hall a couple weeks ago.” ISIS-K carried out an attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall in March, which killed 145 people.
Wray has also cautioned that ISIS-affiliated groups have exploited the U.S.’s weak southern border to smuggle terrorists into the country. During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in March, Wray said “there is a particular network that, where some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have ISIS ties that we’re very concerned about and that we’ve been spending enormous amount of effort with our partners investigating.”
One U.S. official reportedly confirmed that the eight individuals were not flagged during their screening at the southern Mexico border, but that security officials tracked and later tied the individuals to ISIS-K.
Germany apprehended and charged seven individuals last month for engaging in terror plots with ISIS-K, including plans to carry out terrorist attacks in Germany and Western Europe. The terrorist organization also reportedly threatened to attack a cricket match between India and Pakistan at the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup in New York recently, and U.S. officials have repeatedly warned of the threat ISIS-K poses. The terrorist group was responsible for the 2021 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport during America’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, a bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops, and approximately 170 Afghans.
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