FBI hunts for more than a dozen Uzbek migrants who entered southern border with help of ISIS-linked trafficker
The FBI is hunting more than a dozen Uzbek migrants who entered the southern border with the help of an ISIS-linked trafficker
The FBI is looking for more than a dozen Uzbek nationals who were allowed to enter the US after seeking asylum at the southern border after it was found they traveled with the aid of an ISIS-affiliated trafficker, according to a report Tuesday.
Officials are still working to “identify and assess” all individuals in the group who entered the US, National Security Council spokesman Adrienne Watson said. CNN in a statement.
The FBI says no specific ISIS plot has been identified, but two US officials told the paper they are closely monitoring a number of migrants as potential criminal threats.
The group of migrants from Uzbekistan applied for asylum at the border earlier this year and were screened by the Department of Homeland Security and released to the US pending trial over their asylum claims after no alarms were raised.
The alarm bells only sounded later, when the FBI later learned that they had traveled with the help of a network that helps Uzbeks reach the US, and that the network included at least one person associated with ISIS.
The FBI is looking for more than a dozen Uzbek nationals who have applied for asylum at the southern border after it emerged they traveled with the help of an ISIS-linked human trafficker
An FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com Tuesday morning.
The incident involving the Uzbekistan was so alarming that President Joe Biden’s top cabinet officials received an urgent classified intelligence report in their daily briefing books, according to CNN.
Some counter-terrorism officials believe this illustrates the country’s vulnerability to the possibility of terrorists sneaking across the southern border amid a massive wave of asylum seekers.
In July, aArrests for illegally crossing the US border from Mexico rose 33 percent from the previous month, reversing course after a plunge that followed the introduction of new asylum rules in May.
Story in development, more to follow.