People with suspected ties to the Islamic State arrested in Los Angeles

WASHINGTON  — Eight individuals from Tajikistan with suspected ties to the Islamic State have been arrested within the United States in current days, in keeping with a number of individuals aware of the matter.

The arrests befell in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles and the people, who entered the U.S. by way of the southern border, are being held on immigration violations, stated the individuals, who weren’t approved to debate the continued investigation by title and spoke to The Associated Press on situation of anonymity.

The nature of their suspected connections to the Islamic State was not instantly clear Tuesday, however the people had been being tracked by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, or JTTF. They had been within the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which made the arrests whereas working with the JTTF, pending proceedings to take away them from the nation.

The people from Tajikistan entered the nation final spring and handed by way of the U.S. authorities’s screening course of with out turning up data that may have recognized them as potential terrorism-related issues, stated one of many individuals aware of the matter.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued an announcement confirming the immigration-related arrests of “a number of non-citizens” however didn’t element specifics. The companies famous that the U.S. has been in a “heightened risk setting.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray has stated the U.S. is dealing with accelerating threats from homegrown violent extremists in addition to overseas terrorist organizations, notably within the aftermath of the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas on Israel.

He stated at one current congressional listening to that officers had been “involved concerning the terrorism implications from potential focusing on of vulnerabilities on the border.” The Biden administration in August stated that it had detected and stopped a community trying to smuggle individuals from Uzbekistan into the U.S. and that not less than one member of the community had hyperlinks to a overseas terrorist group.

“The FBI and DHS will proceed working across the clock with our companions to determine, examine, and disrupt potential threats to nationwide safety,” the companies stated.