Pressure mounts on Biden admin to issue national terrorism alert after arrest of suspected ISIS-tied border crossers
Former homeland security officials are slamming the Biden administration for failing to issue a national terror threat bulletin for over a year — despite a string of serious potential terror threats stemming from the southern border.
The arrest of eight individuals from Tajikistan believed to have links to the ISIS terror organization — in addition to several recent accidental releases of migrants whose names appear on the terror watchlist — should be enough to alert the public to a terrorist threat, the former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials told The Post.
The DHS last issued a national terrorism alert to the public on May 5, 2023, concerning domestic extremist violence, an alert that expired in November 2023.
Former acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan told The Post the terrorism “threat posed by the current chaos and lawlessness at our border” justifies a new alert to the public.
“DHS had no qualms about releasing a Terrorism Bulletin in March of 2023 alerting the country to the threat posed, in part, due to potential violence by individuals ‘perceptions of the 2024 general election cycle,’ ” Morgan said.
“Yet, when we arrest actual terrorists, who illegally crossed our border, and the FBI director, as well as the broader intelligence community is sounding the alarm concerning the threat our open borders present to our national security, DHS remains silent.
“Could it be there is a presidential election in five months?”
The federal government has recognized the US is in a “heightened” threat environment, while FBI Director Chris Wray has made public warnings about what, how and why those threats could materialize.
In April, Wray warned lawmakers of a possible “coordinated attack” in the US following an ISIS-K attack on a concert hall in Moscow — carried out by citizens of Tajikistan — which killed 145 people and wounded hundreds more.
The month before Wray testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee about concerns surrounding a human smuggling operation at the southern border, with ties to terrorists from ISIS-affiliated groups.
“In light of FBI Director Wray’s recent appearances before Congress warning of the elevated threat level within the US, combined with far too many recent examples of known or suspected terrorists discovered within the country, why hasn’t an National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin been issued?” Charles Marino, former senior law enforcement advisor to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, told The Post.
“Is it because the administration doesn’t want to point the finger back at themselves by recognizing via an NTAS bulletin that the mess they have created at our borders and within the country has undercut our entire homeland security system? The games at DHS need to stop. The American people deserve to be protected.”
Since October 2023, Border Patrol agents have apprehended more than 52,000 migrants of “special interest” due to national security concerns usually involving terror ties to their country.
While that number has surged, along with illegal crossings more broadly, so too has the number of migrants caught with suspected terror ties.
Border Patrol agents apprehended 362 migrants whose names appear on the terror watchlist at the southern border between financial years 2021 and April 2024, marking a massive increase under the Biden administration.
Just 11 were caught between financial years 2017 and 2020, according to federal data.
Here are three vulnerabilities that recent events have highlighted:
Tajik suspected terrorists and others who have been released
The group of eight Tajik border crossers were surveilled after their release into the US and found to have been discussing a bomb before they were arrested in a joint operation involving the FBI and ICE, sources told The Post.
The group — all now in custody waiting to be deported — had crossed the southern border and initial vetting by federal authorities didn’t turn up any problematic information tied to their names, Fox News reported.
It wasn’t the first time, however, that authorities at the southern border had apprehended suspected terrorists and then released them.
ICE arrested a confirmed member of Al Shabaab in Minnesota in January who crossed the border into California and was released by Border Patrol almost a year before. At the border, it was wrongly determined he was a “mismatch” on the terror watchlist.
In a similar situation, the FBI notified ICE that Afghan Mohammad Kharwin, 48, was a suspected member of the terror group Hezb-e-islami almost a year after border authorities released him in March 2023.
ICE was able to make the arrest, but the agency’s lawyers failed to disclose his possible terror ties to a judge, who ordered his release. He was rearrested in April.
Federal border authorities released Colombian national Isnardo Garcia-Amado, 35, with a tracking device after he crossed the border in Yuma, Arizona. The FBI determined three days later that Garcia-Amado’s name appeared on the terror watchlist, but it still took until the next month to nab him again.
Military base breaches
Migrants who have entered the US illegally have also been caught attempting to enter US military bases.
On May 3, two Jordanian nationals, one of whom had crossed the southern border illegally in San Diego, California, the month before, tried to ram their car into the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia.
When the one Jordanian border crosser was processed by Border Patrol before he was released, authorities found “no initial derogatory information” tied to his name.
In March, Border Patrol agents arrested a Chinese man who came to the US illegally and tried to enter the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California.
El Tren de Aragua members
Of additional national security concern is the existence of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which has made its way to major American cities and is the subject of more than 100 federal investigations, according to NBC News.
In New York City, the gang has had alleged ties to moped snatch-and-grab theft gangs, migrant squatters, the recent shooting of two cops and the beating of officers in Times Square.
It has also been said to have links to the murder of a retired Venezuelan police officer, who was lured to his death in Miami by a group of prostitutes in April.
Georgia nursing student Laken Riley’s alleged killer Jose Ibarra and his brother Diego are also said to be members of the gang who were released by federal authorities after crossing the southern border illegally.
The DHS didn’t respond to The Post’s request for comment.
