(Daily Signal)—The Department of Homeland Security in the past year has arrested multiple illegal aliens it says have known ties to terrorist organizations, including ISIS and al-Qaeda.
According to the agency, the illegal aliens include members of al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Islamic Republic Guard Corps of Iran, and MS-13, which President Donald Trump designated a foreign terrorist organization when he returned to office.
“Just a year ago, under [President] Joe Biden, our border was wide open, and criminals, gang members, and terrorists were released into our communities,” Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary, stated.
Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have “unleashed” Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “to target the worst of the worst, including national security threats,” McLaughlin said, adding that the Trump administration is “delivering on the American people’s mandate to make America safe again, and we’re just getting started.”
One of the detainees is Chasib Hafedh Saadoon Al Fawadi, identified as a member of the Iraqi Shia militant group Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq.
The first Trump administration designated Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq a foreign terrorist organization in 2020. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo referred to the group as “violent proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Al Fawadi, an illegal alien from Iraq, has a criminal history that includes charges for rape and criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation. He has been convicted on federal charges of making false statements on an immigration application about his membership in Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq.
He was given a deportation order in 2022, but ICE arrested him in the U.S. in November 2025.
Mahmoud Amin Mohamed Elhassan, originally from Sudan, was convicted on federal charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. ICE arrested him in June.
Fares Abdo Al Eyani, a criminal alien from Yemen, was previously convicted “for conspiracy to unlawfully export defense articles in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations,” DHS reports.
Jordanian Ashraf Farhan Husny Sulaiman has a record that includes conviction for conspiracy to defraud the U.S.
Majid Ghorbani served in the Iranian military and was “charged with acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and convicted for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and petty theft.”
Additionally, DHS reported arrests of MS-13 gang members Gaulner Uliel Pineda Castillo, a Guatemalan who was previously arrested for a kidnapping plot, and Leonel Alexander Velasquez-Hernandez, an illegal alien from El Salvador with a criminal history that “includes arrests for murder, assault, dangerous weapons with intent to injure, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy assault, and stalking.”
The Department of Homeland Security faces criticism and backlash following a Border Patrol-involved shooting in Minneapolis on Saturday that left 37-year-old Alex Pretti dead.
Two and a half weeks before that, an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis.
Both shootings took place amid anti-immigration enforcement operation protests in Minneapolis and are currently under investigation.
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