8 Tajik nationals with alleged ties to terrorism arrested in US

Map courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

CNN reports that federal agents yesterday arrested eight Tajikistan nationals in the United States on immigration charges following the discovery of potential ties to terrorism.  Arrests by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement were made inLos Angeles, New York and Philadelphia.  According to the report, 

"One source said the eight had previously entered the US via the Southern border and were screened by US officials, and that no derogatory information in their past was identified at the time.

A second source said investigators later discovered possible links to ISIS members located overseas, which spurred the federal investigation. . . . .

The group had been on the radar of US officials for well over a month, but senior US officials recently decided to have the eight expelled from the country under ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations authority rather than risking having the FBI surveil them longer and wait for the potential manifestation of a possible plot, the source told CNN."

In a release, ICE and the FBI said ICE “agents arrested several non-citizens” in coordination with the FBI’s joint terrorism task forces.

KJ