Since the U.S. bombing of several Iranian nuclear sites, federal officials have sounded the alarm about potential retaliatory terror attacks on U.S. soil. Thanks to former President Joe Biden’s “Let everyone in!” immigration policies, those worries are very much legitimate.
On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed it detained 11 Iranian nationals over a 48-hour period. According to the agency, several of these individuals entered the United States under the Biden administration and have committed serious crimes.
This list of arrestees includes Ribvar Karimi, whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained on Sunday in Locust, Alabama. Per DHS, “Karimi reportedly served as an Iranian Army sniper from 2018 to 2021 and at the time of his arrest, in his possession, he had an Islamic Republic of Iran Army identification card.”
According to the agency, Karimi “entered the U.S. on a K-1 visa, which is reserved for aliens engaged to be married to American citizens, in October 2024 under the Biden administration,” but “never adjusted his status — a legal requirement — and is removable from the United States.”
Another Iranian national detained by ICE is Mehran Makari Saheli. The DHS press release noted that the 56-year-old is “convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm in Minneapolis, where he was sentenced to 15 months in prison,” and “is a former member of… the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with admitted connections to Hezbollah.”
“An immigration judge ordered [Saheli] removed June 28, 2022, under the Biden administration, but he illegally remained in the U.S.,” according to the agency. ICE detained five more Iranian nationals on Monday, adding to the initial batch of arrests announced earlier Tuesday morning, Fox News reported.
While federal agents deserve credit for successfully apprehending these dangerous individuals, the news of their arrests underscores the national security threats that Biden’s destructive immigration policies created. For years, the Biden administration allowed millions of illegal aliens to pour across America’s southern border with little to no oversight. This facilitated crisis was only compounded by the fact that the administration was simultaneously importing foreign nationals under various “parole” programs.
While it’s estimated the Biden administration released at least 729 Iranian nationals into the country during its four years in power, those figures don’t take into account the number of Iranians who may have crossed undetected into the United States.
Were any of these prospective “gotaways” IRGC agents? Did they boast ties to Iranian-backed terrorist groups? Thanks to Biden and his administration, the nation has no idea.
It’s one thing for U.S. officials to pinpoint where potential Iranian missile attacks on American military forces in the Middle East may come from and shoot them down. It’s a much more difficult task to identify individual Iranian agents operating in a country of more than 330 million people and stop them from launching terror attacks against the American public.
Due to Team Biden’s malicious immigration policies, the latter has become much more difficult.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood