The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has identified over 400 migrants who entered the United States through a human smuggling network with ties to ISIS — 50 of whom are missing.
The report raises significant concerns about national security, the risk of international terrorism on U.S. soil, and the out-of-control U.S.-Mexico border.
According to officials, more than 150 of these individuals have been arrested, but the locations of at least 50 others remain unknown.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is actively seeking to apprehend these individuals on illegal immigration charges.
The migrants in question primarily originate from Central Asian countries and regions where ISIS-K, an ISIS offshoot, has been particularly active. These areas include Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, and Russia.
The focus on these regions has intensified following recent radical Islamic terrorist attacks, notably the March 22 massacre at a Moscow concert hall that killed 145 people, carried out by terrorists affiliated with ISIS-K.
A senior Biden administration official emphasized to NBC News the cautious approach being taken: “We exercised our authority in the most expansive and appropriate way to mitigate risk because of this potential connection being made.”
The situation has exposed further vulnerabilities in the U.S. border vetting process because these migrants had illegally crossed the southern border and were initially released into the country by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) because they were not on the government’s terrorism watchlist at the time.
This revelation has sparked debate about the effectiveness of current Biden catch-and-release procedures, especially for individuals from countries that do not routinely share law enforcement information with the United States.
Christopher O’Leary, former FBI counterterrorism section chief, described the unknown whereabouts of some of these individuals as “clearly alarming.”
Between October 2020 and May 2024, over 1,500 Tajik migrants entered the US, according to leaked border data. While it’s unclear how many were released into the country, the majority of migrants claiming asylum are typically released into the United States pending asylum court hearings.
The majority of those released are never heard from again.
Federal law enforcement agencies maintain that they are not “panicking” over the 50 missing ISIS-linked migrants, but are prioritizing these cases out of an abundance of caution. Notably, none have been charged with Islamic terrorism-related offenses to date.