The Department of Homeland Security has designated more than 400 migrants who entered the US from Central Asia and elsewhere in the past three years as “of concern” because they were brought there by human trafficking networks linked to ISIS, three US officials told NBC News.
Officials said more than 150 people were arrested, but the whereabouts of more than 50 remain unknown and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to arrest them on immigration charges once their whereabouts are identified.
A U.S. official said people with ties to ISIS are operating as human traffickers in Central Asia, helping people leave their countries and travel to Western countries to be smuggled into the U.S. It’s unclear whether the trafficking operation directly funds ISIS operations or whether ISIS members are using it as a side business to enrich themselves.
The official added that there is no indication in the United States that the more than 400 immigrants brought to the U.S. by the network have plans to carry out terrorist attacks inside the U.S., but immigration authorities are trying to arrest them out of caution.
“In this case, there was information suggesting that some of the individuals involved may have ties to ISIS. [smuggling migrants to the border] “That led us to exercise great caution,” a Biden administration official said, “and to make sure that we exercised our authorities in the broadest and most appropriate manner out of an abundance of caution to mitigate the risks posed by this potential nexus.”
The official added that since ICE began arresting migrants brought to the U.S. by ISIS-linked smuggling groups several months ago, it has not come across any information linking them to a threat to U.S. soil.
Most of the more than 400 migrants who crossed the southern border were released into the U.S. by Customs and Border Protection because they were not on the government’s terrorism watch list, according to three officials, who said the agency had no information at the time that would have caused concern.
But recent terrorist attacks in Russia have raised concerns about ISIS and its offshoot, ISIS-K, and in recent months the Department of Homeland Security has been more closely monitoring immigrants from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Russia, where ISIS-K is active.
“The fact that its whereabouts were unknown is obviously disturbing,” said Christopher O’Leary, a former FBI counterterrorism division chief who now works at security consulting firm The Soufan Group.
O’Leary said ICE likely seeks to make these arrests to detain people who may pose a threat to national security, even if there is no evidence they are plotting an attack.
“I [U.S.] “Police are scrambling to locate these people and it’s not uncommon for them to be charged with immigration offences,” O’Leary said. “They’re violating the law, and if you need to get someone off the streets, this is a good way to do it.”
Thousands of immigrants from those countries are already in the United States, awaiting court decisions on whether they can stay.
Two officials said federal law enforcement agencies are “not panicking” about people identified as “persons of concern,” but are prioritizing arrests of them for immigration violations out of an abundance of caution.
Some of the 150 arrested Officials say they have already been deported, and that other migrants in 17 states are known to be in custody and may be arrested soon, while others may have already left the U.S. voluntarily.
Some of those detained or deported so far have been charged with immigration offences; none have been charged with terrorism-related offences.
After the story was first published, several Republicans, including members of the Trump campaign, responded to the NBC News report by accusing the Biden administration of being responsible for allowing migrants into the country through ISIS-linked networks.
“There is literally no one that President Biden won’t reject, including illegal immigrants from problem countries smuggled into the country by networks linked to ISIS,” said Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Earlier this month, ICE arrested eight Tajik men in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles for suspected ties to ISIS. Two US officials told NBC News that the Tajik men did not enter the country through the same ISIS-linked network that has brought more than 400 migrants to the US.
NBC News first reported on a similar arrest of an Uzbek man in Baltimore whose home country had reported him to the US as having ties to ISIS. The man was arrested in April after living in the US for more than two years, according to two US officials, and had no indications of terrorism ties when he entered the US.
Counterterrorism officials say the terrorism threat from migrants crossing the U.S. border is historically low. Since October, the number of migrants entering the U.S. from Mexico and Canada who authorities identified as being on terrorism watch lists has accounted for 0.014 percent of all migrants encountered by CBP, or just under 1 in every 7,000 migrants screened, according to CBP data.
But some current and former U.S. officials have recently sounded the alarm that national security requires improved screening at the U.S. border. They point to an increase in migrants from Venezuela, China and Eastern Hemisphere countries that do not regularly share law enforcement or crime data with the U.S. as reason for concern.
NBC News reported in April that Mohammed Kalwin, 48, an Afghan national who was on a U.S. terrorist watch list, was released by CBP after they failed to provide sufficient information about him at the time he crossed the border. Kalwin spent nearly a year in the U.S. before being arrested in San Antonio in February. After a court hearing, Kalwin was released on bail again, but was arrested again just hours after NBC News published a story about Kalwin’s case.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General recently outlined problems with screening at the U.S. southern border, saying in a report that “Homeland Security’s technology, procedures, and coordination were not sufficiently effective to screen and vet non-citizens applying for admission to the United States.”
In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, the Republican-led House Homeland Security Committee asked for an unedited version of the inspector general’s report so it can “assess the Department of Homeland Security’s response to this important national security issue.”
