House Committee demands answers on eight Tajik border crossers arrested for terrorist attack

Republicans in the House of Representatives are demanding answers after an FBI anti-terrorism operation in three major U.S. cities allegedly arrested eight Tajik citizens who had crossed the southwestern U.S. border and were planning a bomb attack.

In a new letter, Mark Green and several chairs of the House Homeland Security Committee are demanding that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas disclose whether border authorities may have known about terrorist links when the Tajik Eight first crossed the border and how those authorities treated the immigrants after their release until they were informed of the plot by the FBI.

At least some of the Tajik Eight had already crossed the border more than a year before their arrest by ICE in early June 2024. And the FBI undercover operation had been underway for some time, according to media reports.

In their letter, they refer to an NBC news report that ICE arrested the “Tajik Eight” on immigration charges in the first week of June only “after the FBI alerted them that the men had ties to the terrorist group ISIS.”

Lawmakers are investigating whether the border agency’s overwhelmed staff is able to adequately screen terrorists and other criminals.

The Committee cites my report detailing seven inadvertent releases of terror suspects – all of which reflect intelligence failures in the fight against terrorism – and calls for vigorous congressional action and a concerted government investigation.

“Unfortunately, the unacceptable security deficiencies that have allowed individuals with terrorist ties to enter the United States through the southwest border have become a troubling pattern under the administration,” the letter said.

The committee, which is specifically responsible for overseeing all government activities related to homeland security, is requesting the immigration records of all eight suspects, as well as communications between the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detailing how the eight detained immigrants were treated after crossing the border, and any derogatory information about them in the terrorist watchlist database.

They want a briefing by June 27 and the documents and records later.

But if experience is any indicator, Mayorkas will most likely ignore this legitimate public interest desire.

Mayorkas has already denied an April 3, 2024, committee request for information on two of the accidental releases of suspected terrorists who crossed the border and were on the FBI watch list, “due to errors in ICE’s internal database.”

A particularly blatant security failure occurred with the inadvertent release of Afghan national Mohammad Kharwin at the border. Kharwin was already on the FBI’s terrorist list because of his links to Hezb-e-Islami, an organization classified as a terrorist organization by the United States.

Border Patrol released him into ICE custody under the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program on March 12, 2023, after he illegally entered California from Mexico. He remained free for nearly a year until he was arrested in San Antonio.

“The Department’s prioritization of capture, processing, and release poses a serious threat to national security,” the letter said. “The Committee has repeatedly and forcefully highlighted the security vulnerabilities posed by the massive influx of illegal aliens at our border. Yet the Biden administration and the Department continue to bury their heads in the sand and ignore the ‘flashing red lights’ that are everywhere.”

Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, is the author of America’s Covert Border War (2021).