Eight men from Tajikistan with potential ties to ISIS out of central Asia were arrested over the weekend in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, three people familiar with the matter told NBC News on Tuesday.
The suspects had been on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force radar and were arrested by personnel with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, the sources say.
All eight men crossed through the southern border into the U.S., and their criminal backgrounds checks came back clean when they crossed, say two officials familiar with the matter.
At least two of the men crossed the border in spring 2023, and one of those men used the CBP One app, which the Biden administration created to allow migrants to book appointments to claim asylum, those officials say.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has been aware of a potential terrorist threat originating in central Europe, and it began monitoring these men as part of that investigation, three sources say.
