The FBI is reportedly scrambling to find more than a dozen Uzbek nationals who sought asylum in the US earlier this year after intelligence officers discovered they traveled to the southern border with the help of a smuggler who has ties to ISIS.
Officials are working to “identify and assess” all of the individuals who gained entry into the country, National Security Council spokesman Adrienne Watson told CNN.
They are also scrutinizing a number of migrants as possible criminal threats, two unnamed federal officials told the news network. But authorities say no specific ISIS plot has been identified.
Nothing in any of the intelligence community’s databases raised any red flags, CNN reported, and the Uzbek asylum seekers were all released into the US pending a court appearance.
However, US immigration offices have become so overwhelmed with processing migrants that it could take more than a decade to get in front of a judge.
Backlogs at immigration court currently stand at 2.5 million cases waiting to be heard, according to figures compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
But once inside the US, the migrants could have taken up residence anywhere.
It was only after the migrants were already inside the country that the FBI learned of a smuggling network helping Uzbeks into the US — which involved at least one individual with ties to ISIS. They’re still not found as of today!
The bureau began a nationwide search for the migrants, and also worked with Turkish authorities, who apprehended the smuggler and other members of the network, the report said.
The ISIS-linked smuggler is not believed to be a member of the terrorist organization, but is rather an independent contractor who has personal sympathies with the organization, the NSC rep said.
…many have not yet been located, and more than 15 who have been tracked down are still under scrutiny as possible criminal threats.
The discovery of the ISIS-linked network has set off alarm bells in Washington, at a time when Republican presidential candidates are laser focused on the southern border.
