The Biden administration has reportedly imposed new restrictions on the release of migrants from at least one Central Asian country into the interior amid ongoing fears about terrorism.
New York Post This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported that it had received orders not to release any immigrants from Tajikistan, and if it did, they would first need to be questioned by intelligence officials.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
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Migrants walk along the U.S.-Mexico border fence on Dec. 12, 2023, in Lukeville, Arizona. (Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Last month, eight Tajik nationals with ties to ISIS were arrested by federal authorities in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. All eight had entered the country illegally through the southern border but no adverse information was reported during the process.
Federal government sources said the terrorism suspects had been “thoroughly investigated” and no findings were found. Terrorist suspects Those released to the US were cited for national security concerns, including ties to ISIS.
since then, Department of Homeland Security They have identified more than 400 people who have been brought to the United States from Eastern Europe and Central Asia by ISIS-linked smuggling networks in the past few months.
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A senior Homeland Security source told Fox last month that more than 150 people have been deported, are in the process of being deported, or are currently undergoing further review. The source did not say how many or whether they were on the terrorism watch list. Of the remaining 50 fugitives, a small number “may be on the terrorism watch list,” the source acknowledged.
“There is no information to suggest that the remaining individuals pose an imminent threat to their homeland,” the official said.
Homeland Security believes this is not an ISIS terror operation, but rather a network exploiting migrants wanting to enter the US, the sources said. But their countries of origin pose heightened security risks. Fox said at the time that border patrol officers had been told to detain and subject to additional screening anyone from certain countries or associated with networks. The Post report seems to confirm that this included Tajik nationals.
Migrants line up at the southern border in San Diego on June 6, 2024. (Fox News)
This comes as a crisis at the southern border enters its fourth year, though numbers have dropped recently.
San Diego has seen one of the highest numbers of migrant arrivals this year, San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond told Fox News Digital on Wednesday in response to questions about reports of the new restrictions, saying the issue is with vetting.
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“The Border Patrol is overstretched and they’re not doing enough to properly vet people who are coming across the border,” he said in an interview. “And I think that’s the No. 1 issue: the safety of our people, who is being allowed in, and unfortunately, we don’t know many people are being allowed in.” [or] Their background.”
“Our border patrol is failing to properly vet people coming across the border, and to me, this is a national security issue, not just for San Diego County, but for the entire country,” he said.
For more coverage on the border security crisis, click here
Federal officials have noted the difficulty of properly vetting migrants coming across the border, with ICE Acting Administrator Patrick Reckleitner recently saying that “sometimes we just don’t have any information about an individual” during screening.
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“It’s common to find that there’s nothing, they have nothing. These individuals have no criminal history, no threat information, or these individuals may be from areas of particular concern, but that only surfaces later when we get information.” He said.
Fox News’ Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.
