US Arrests Eight Migrants With Suspected Islamic State Group Ties

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Facts

  • Eight people suspected of having ties to the Islamic State (IS) group were arrested across three US cities in recent days, anonymous sources told the AP. The detainees reportedly entered the US through the southern border and are being held on immigration violations.1
  • The reported arrests occurred in New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. The alleged individuals are from Tajikistan, and they entered the US last spring — passing through government screening without signs of potential terrorism-related concerns, according to the sources.2
  • Their specific connection to IS remains unclear, but they were tracked by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, which was working with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE reportedly made the arrests and is now trying to remove the suspects from the country.3
  • Many of the suspects were reportedly part of a group that was coordinating a sting operation in the US, and a wire allegedly showed one of the detainees talking about bombs. That suspect was previously released at the southern border by federal authorities with a court date for next year.3
  • The suspects were not engaged in an active terror plot, according to sources. It will be difficult to deport them back to the Central Asian nation due to operational and diplomatic concerns, and only four Tajikistani nationals were deported in all of 2023.4
  • The arrests come after FBI Director Christopher Wray warned a Senate subcommittee that the FBI is concerned about a potential attack on the US, similar to the IS in Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) (Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate) attack in March at a Russian concert hall.5

Sources: 1Associated Press, 2ABC News, 3New York Post, 4CBS and 5FOX News.

Narratives

  • Republican narrative, as provided by FOX News. In addition to undermining US laws and sovereignty, Joe Biden's lax border policy has enabled terrorists to freely enter the country. Biden and the Democrats clearly don't care about the financial and societal strain that millions of illegal migrants bring upon the US, and now there is a serious IS group issue. The Biden regime allowed eight potential terrorists to travel across the border, and hopefully, this will be a wake-up call for radical Democrats who champion open borders.
  • Democratic narrative, as provided by Newsweek. It appears that federal authorities have thwarted Russian nationals with suspected ties to IS. The FBI and ICE coordinated to make sure that these potential terrorists didn't attack the US, and FBI Director Christopher Wray was correct in his assessment of US national security. While some Republicans threaten to withhold funding from the FBI, this incident shows how important the agency is to US safety, and that Biden's immigration and national security policies are working.

Predictions