Eight Foreign Nationals With ISIS Ties Arrested In Sting Operation After Crossing The Southern Border

Eight individuals from Tajikistan with suspected ties to ISIS terror cells have been arrested in a sting operation that spanned multiple cities. The men are believed to have entered the country after crossing the southern border earlier this year and last year, ABC News reported.

The suspects were arrested in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia on Tuesday. All suspects were allowed to enter the United States after they were “vetted” and deemed not to pose any security risks, an official familiar with the investigation stated.

Authorities were eventually alerted to information indicating that the men had affiliations with jihadist groups, including ISIS.

Efforts are currently underway to deport the individuals, as authorities have not uncovered sufficient evidence to charge them with terrorism-related offenses.

“Over the last few days, ICE agents arrested several non-citizens pursuant to immigration authorities,” the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said 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. As the FBI and DHS have recently described in public and partner bulletins, the U.S. has been in a heightened threat environment. The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security,” the statement continued.

Since President Biden took office in January 2021, there has been a massive surge in apprehensions of individuals on terror watchlists at the southern border.

In the fiscal year 2022, a record 98 suspects on the U.S. government terror watch list were apprehended at both the southern and northern borders. This figure represented a massive increase over Biden’s first year in office, when 16 suspects were nabbed. In 2019, when the border faced a more minor crisis due to a surge in migrant caravans, the number was zero.