Exclusive: ISIS-linked smuggler helped migrants enter the US

The FBI is investigating more than a dozen immigrants from Uzbekistan and other countries allowed into the United States who sought asylum at the southern border with Mexico earlier this year. The agency was called in when US intelligence officials discovered that the migrants had traveled with the help of a smuggler with links to the Islamic State (ISIS).

While the FBI says it has not identified any specific Islamic State conspiracy, authorities are still working to “identify and evaluate” all individuals who have been authorized to enter the United States, according to a statement by a spokeswoman for the Council of National Security Adrienne Watson.

They are taking a closer look at a number of immigrants who could pose criminal threats, according to two sources.

While there is no evidence at this time to justify anyone’s detention, the episode was so alarming that an urgent and confidential intelligence report was distributed to key officials in President Joe Biden’s office in the update book sent out each morning.

For some agents who work with anti-terrorism, the action shows that the US is very vulnerable to the possibility that terrorists cross the border with Mexico, hiding in the middle of the wave of immigrants that enter the country in search of asylum.

The incident kicked off a series of urgent meetings between top national and government officials. And it came at a time when Republican Party members have been attacking Biden over the security of the southern border, in a strategy for the 2024 presidential campaign.

According to two sources familiar with the matter, members of key congressional committees were briefed on the incident.

Earlier this year, a group of immigrants from Uzbekistan applied for asylum and were investigated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They are part of a growing number of asylum seekers from Central Asia who have traveled to the US in recent years.

At that time, there was no information in any of the intelligence community’s databases that raised red flags. Therefore, all were released to enter the US pending a hearing date to finalize the asylum process.

Only later, when the FBI learned of the existence of a human trafficking ring that helps foreigners travel to the US — and that included at least one individual with links to the Islamic State — did national security officials put the pieces together.

FBI agents across the country immediately rushed to try to locate the migrants and investigate their origins. The department also worked with Turkish authorities, who arrested the smuggler and other members of his network at the request of the US, and later obtained information from him to help the investigation.

“There was no indication – and remains no indication – that any of the individuals aided by this network had a connection to a foreign terrorist organization or were involved in a conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack in the United States,” said Council spokeswoman Watson. of National Security, in a statement to the CNN .

Since the information from the intelligence services was revealed, homeland security authorities have also begun to detain, examine and even accelerate the removal of other migrants found at the border who “fit the profile associated with individuals who have been assisted by this network”, he said. Watson.

The smuggler linked to Islamic State is believed not to be a member of the terrorist group, but a freelancer who has sympathy for the organization, according to US officials. The intelligence community thinks it unlikely that he helped the individuals now being investigated at the behest of the Islamic State.

Most are believed to be looking for a better life in the United States.

For some in the Biden administration, the episode is an example of the system working as it should: Intelligence emerged about a particular group of immigrants, and the US responded with an investigation that determined they pose no threat.

“While the FBI has not identified a specific terrorist conspiracy associated with foreign nationals who recently entered the United States via the southern border, we always work with our field offices across the country, as well as domestic and international partners, to identify any potential illegal activity or threats of terrorism,” the FBI said in a statement to CNN .

However, the US has yet to locate all of the individuals who traveled in the group, according to Watson’s statement. Furthermore, more than 15 of the screened immigrants are still under FBI scrutiny as potential criminal threats, according to a US official.

Some law enforcement and intelligence officials have privately expressed concerns that an unusual increase in the number of migrants from Central Asia, a region not known to be a large source of refugees, has not prompted further investigation by US border authorities. .

“We continually evaluate our security architecture to ensure we are better prepared to respond to threats to the homeland,” said spokeswoman Watson.

“In addition, we continue to constantly recalibrate the screening, verification and processing of those attempting to enter the United States to ensure that we take into account the most up-to-date information available to us, in an uncompromising commitment to protecting Americans and the homeland from the full range of threats. potentials”.

Watson also said in his statement that the US is working with foreign partners to close down travel routes associated with the smuggling ring.

In a communiqué to CNN an official at the Turkish embassy in Washington said Turkey had arrested four members of a human trafficking network alleged to be helping Uzbeks, Russians, Chechens and Georgians residing in Turkey travel to the United States.

The Turkish authority denied that there was a link between any of the four arrested individuals and the Islamic State.

A senior government official suggested that Turkey did not have access to the same intelligence as the US about the smuggler’s links to Islamic State.

“Working with partners, the US cannot always share the full scope of information. We appreciate Turkey’s cooperation,” concluded the official.

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told CNN that the department, along with its “counterterrorism and law enforcement partners, screens and screens individuals prior to their entry into the United States to prevent anyone known to pose a threat from entering the country.”

“DHS continually monitors all available sources of intelligence and information relating to potential threats, and if new information emerges, we work closely with the FBI and other partners to take appropriate action.”

terrorism and frontier

The episode is at the center of two of the thorniest and most politically charged security risks facing the Biden administration: terrorism and the border situation.

Biden has been wrestling with the best way to prevent terrorist attacks on the US at a time when the intelligence community and the military have diverted many of their resources away from counterterrorism in favor of threats from China and Russia.

Government officials also struggle with limited resources as they face growing numbers of migrants at the US southern border. Migration patterns to the United States have changed dramatically in recent years, with people from over 150 countries arriving in the country.

For authorities, it is a reflection of unprecedented mass migration across the world.

In July, border officials encountered more than 183,000 immigrants at the southern US border, according to US Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) data.

Both the Biden and Trump administrations have been forced to grapple with similar cases of terrorist suspects trying to enter the country through the southern border.

But the number of individuals found at the border with entries on the terrorism watch list in any given year is extremely small and represents a tiny percentage of the total number of known or suspected terrorists attempting to enter or travel to the US through other means.

When USCBP officers process migrants, they collect biometric data like fingerprints and facial scans, and check certain law enforcement databases for any red flags.

Migrants arriving at the US southern border from Central Asia may trigger additional screening because of the distance and costs required to make the trip, according to a former DHS official. The operation raises questions about why an individual from that part of the world would choose to cross the border from the southern US.

But if there is no derogatory information about a person in US databases, the immigrant is then cleared until the court hearing. While some asylum seekers do not appear at the hearing, officials say US law enforcement has surveillance tools at their disposal to track them down in the country.

It’s unclear whether this particular group of immigrants received secondary investigations at the time, but it’s possible – and even likely – that it did.

However, as authorities believe the Turkish smuggler was acting as a human smuggler (rather than an agent of the Islamic State), it is not clear that they would have been detained or treated differently even if the government had known of their role in the time they were processed.

For some intelligence and law enforcement officials who spoke privately with the CNN that’s part of the problem.

The US government must figure out how to define who is and who is not a threat in a dark world where criminal activity, such as human trafficking, is often loosely linked with terrorist organizations. It is particularly difficult to untangle these threads for desperate migrants fleeing countries where terrorist groups routinely recruit and operate.

Speaking at a July congressional hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “From the FBI’s perspective, we see all sorts of very serious criminal threats coming across the border.”

Wray said the border was becoming “more of a priority” for the FBI.

Some intelligence officials who saw the intelligence report sent earlier this month fear that Islamic State could change its tactics to hit the southern border, a threat long used by right-wing politicians but which intelligence officials say has not come true. yet.

For other sources, the report sent in the morning book to top US policy makers was an appropriately cautious response by a responsible government.

In other words, it is a warning about the theoretical risk faced by the United States and a signal that national security agencies understand the threat and determine how best to harden American defenses.

“Whenever we have indications that criminal actors – such as those involved in human trafficking – have links to terrorism, we work diligently with our partners to investigate and understand how foreign terrorist organizations might attempt to exploit their capabilities so that we can mitigate any risk to the American people,” the FBI wrote in the statement.