Last month, Townhall covered how two Jordanians who may have been doing a “dry run for Al-Qaeda of ISIS” were arrested after they allegedly tried to ram their way onto Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia.
“On May 3, 2024, Marine Corps Base Quantico’s Criminal Investigations Division arrested two Jordanian noncitizens for trespassing,” ICE Washington spokesperson James Covington told the New York Post. “Deportation officers from Enforcement and Removal Operations’ [ERO] Criminal Apprehension Program responded and arrested both individuals without incident.”
This week, the New York Post reported that illegal aliens from Tajikistan, which is known as a “hotbed of ISIS recruitment” has surged under President Joe Biden’s leadership.
Reportedly, more than 1,500 illegal aliens from Tajikistan are known to have crossed the border between October 2020 and May 2024. At least 500 have been caught so far this year. Over the last 14 years, there were only 26 Tajik nationals crossing the border (via NYP):
It’s unknown how many of the Tajik migrants were released into the US, but the vast majority of migrants caught at the border claim asylum and are allowed to stay while they await a court hearing.
The small Central Asian country, which borders both China and Afghanistan, has become a major source of terrorists for ISIS and Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), an extreme offshoot of the Islamic State militant group.
Townhall previously reported how several illegal aliens with suspected ties to ISIS were arrested in New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles following a sting operation. The suspected terrorists reportedly hailed from Tajikistan.
“Tajiks have been recruited to and played a key role in terrorist organizations like Islamic State to a greater degree than many neighboring countries in recent years. They have become key to [ISIS-K]’s externally-focused campaign as it seeks to gain attention and more recruits,” Texas A&M University professor Edward Lemon, who studies Central Asia, told the Post.
Javed Ali, a former counterterrorism official who now teaches at the University of Michigan said that ISIS could be “seeding people into the United States” to prepare for a possible terror attack.
