OAN’s Brooke Mallory
4:17 PM – Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Over the weekend, eight individuals from Tajikistan who authorities believe have connections to ISIS were detained in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New York, according to three individuals with knowledge of the situation who spoke to NBC News on Tuesday.
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The three insiders’ job positions and credibility were purportedly confirmed by the outlet.
According to the sources, the suspects were apprehended by employees of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after coming to the attention of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The New York Post (The Post) first broke the news of the arrests. However, The Post did not include the last two suspected terrorists involved in their report.
Two top officials with knowledge of the situation told reporters that all eight individuals entered the country through the southern border, and their criminal history background checks came back clean at the time of entry.
The officials went on to say that at least two of the men entered the country in the spring of 2023, and one of them made use of the CBP One app, which the Biden administration created in order to let migrants schedule appointments in order to apply for asylum.
According to the three insiders, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force began keeping track of the men as part of its investigation after learning of a possible terrorist threat. They did not go into detail regarding what first alerted them.
One U.S. official explained that the FBI closely observed the group’s operations and monitored them for a number of months.
The FBI then later notified ICE that they should be detained due to possible connections to ISIS, even though they have not been charged with any terrorist-related activities or plots yet, according to two of the sources.
They have now been detained on immigration-related offenses. According to two of the sources, they are being held and “may eventually be charged with acts related to terrorism.” They will also be facing removal proceedings before an immigration judge.
“Over the last few days, ICE agents arrested several non-citizens pursuant to immigration authorities,” stated the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI in a joint statement on Tuesday. “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.”
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