The FBI is scrambling to locate immigrants from Uzbekistan who were released into the United States after they illegally crossed the southern border with the help of a human smuggler who has ties to the Islamic State terrorist group, according to a new report.
Federal law enforcement agencies nationwide are piecing together how information slipped between the cracks and resulted in a national security headache for the Biden administration, which Republicans will likely cite as proof of the potential dangers of the unchecked border crisis.
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Earlier this year, Border Patrol agents at an unspecified part of the southern border apprehended and processed a group of people from the Central Asian country, CNN reported on Tuesday morning. The group's members claimed asylum and would have been screened against the FBI's terror watch list and U.S. criminal databases before being let out of custody and permitted to remain in the country pending immigration court hearings, which often don't take place until years later.
But federal investigations conducted after the incident revealed that the group's smuggler was an ISIS sympathizer, prompting concern that the border crisis was exploited to push potentially dangerous people into the U.S.
Additionally, several of the Uzbek nationals are now being investigated as possible criminal threats, U.S. officials told CNN. More than 15 of the Uzbeks have been tracked down and remain under FBI watch. The total number of Uzbeks and the number who have not been found were not disclosed.
The incident was of such concern that government officials drafted an urgent, classified intelligence report and printed it in the morning briefing book of President Joe Biden's top Cabinet officials.
The FBI told the Washington Examiner in a statement that it "has not identified a specific terrorism plot associated with foreign nationals who recently entered the United States at the southern border."
"Whenever we have indicators that criminal actors — such as those involved in human smuggling — have connections to terrorism, we work diligently with our partners to investigate and understand how foreign terrorist organizations may attempt to exploit their capabilities so that we can best mitigate any risk to the American public," the FBI wrote in an email Tuesday morning.
But the incident highlights what Republicans have claimed for years could happen as millions of people come over the border illegally: bad actors hiding within the masses.
While the Uzbek immigrants were encountered at the border, more than 1 million immigrants have been observed crossing the border illegally and have not been arrested under Biden due to a shortage of Border Patrol resources. The government has no way of knowing who those people are or if they were on the terror watch list, part of a cartel or gang, or have been previously deported.
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson told CNN that "since the intelligence became available, homeland security officials also began detaining, vetting and, ultimately, expediting the removal of other migrants encountered at the southern border who 'fit the profile associated with individuals who were facilitated by this network.'"
But Brandon Judd, the national president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the "breakdown" in communication between Washington and the 19,000 Border Patrol agents nationwide has not been remedied despite what Watson claimed. Border Patrol agents have not been briefed or instructed to use extra caution when screening and processing immigrants crossing from unusual countries in parts of the world that have ties to terrorist groups.
"The moment an intelligence gathering network uncovered anything, frontline employees like Border Patrol agents should have been given notice to be extra vigilant for this type of activity, especially at a time with unprecedented got-aways, but we were given no notification," Judd said in a text message Tuesday morning.
"It is also concerning that an intelligence agency would say there is no known plot at this time," Judd said. "There was no known plot leading up to 9/11 either."
A DHS spokesperson said the department's "intelligence, counterterrorism, and law enforcement partners screen and vet individuals prior to their entry to the United States to prevent anyone known to pose a threat from entering the country."
The DHS defended its role in screening immigrants at the southern border and said its personnel did not drop the ball but vetted the Uzbeks based on the available information they had at the time when they were apprehended.
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"DHS continually monitors all available sources of intelligence and information related to potential threats and if any new information emerges, we work closely with the FBI and other partners to take appropriate action," the DHS spokesperson said.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.