Over 150 have been arrested, while the location of more than 50 are unknown to U.S. officials, the unnamed sources told NBC News. “In this case, it was the information that suggested a potential tie to ISIS because of some of the individuals involved in [smuggling migrants to the border] that led us to want to take extra care,” a senior Biden administration official told the news outlet, “and out of an abundance of caution make sure that we exercised our authority in the most expansive and appropriate way to mitigate risk because of this potential connection being made.” Many of the 400 migrants who illegally entered America through the southern border were released by border authorities because their names did not appear on the government’s terrorism watchlist. “The fact that the whereabouts were unknown is clearly alarming,” former FBI counterterrorism section chief Christopher O’Leary, who now works at security consulting firm The Soufan Group, told NBC. A day after the explosive report was published, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called it “incorrect,” setting him at odds with senior members of the department he leads. “That reporting is incorrect. We have not identified 400 people with potential ISIS ties,” he told reporters. “And let me again assure you that individuals who are identified to have those ties would pose a concern to us, from a public safety and security perspective, and they would be priorities for detention and removal.” After a reporter asked him to reiterate whether he believed the report to be inaccurate, Mayorkas replied: “I think it is inaccurate.”The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has identified as “subjects of concern” more than 400 foreign nationals who have come to the U.S. through an ISIS-affiliated human smuggling network, according to three unnamed officials who spoke with NBC News.
Impeached DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas DENIES "at least 400 migrants with potential ISIS ties recently crossed into the United States" after they were released by the Biden administration pic.twitter.com/4oZzWwvu8w O’Leary said that agents from Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) are likely looking to make these arrests to detain anyone who could pose a national security threat, even without evidence they are plotting an attack. “I believe the [U.S.] is scrambling to locate these individuals, and using the immigration charges is not uncommon,” O’Leary said. “They are in violation of that law. And if you need to take somebody off the street, that’s a good approach to do it.”
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 26, 2024
