ICE arrests Uzbek man with alleged links to ISIS and who has been living in the US since crossing illegally in 2022 | Law enforcement today

BALTIMORE, MD – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have announced the arrest of an Uzbek man with alleged ties to ISIS. The illegal migrant, 33-year-old Jovokhir Attoev, has been living in the United States for more than two years.

Attoev crossed the southern border into Arizona in February 2022, according to NBC News. At that time, he was apprehended by Border Patrol agents, but neither Customs and Border Protection (CBP) nor ICE could find any derogatory information about the alleged ISIS member, and he was released on bail to the United States.

Just over a year later, in March 2023, Uzbekistan published an international notice that Attoev was wanted in his home country for his alleged ties to ISIS. Another year later, in March, when Attoev submitted his asylum application, US officials discovered the message from Uzbekistan and linked it to Attoev.

After the connection was made, ICE arrested him on April 17 in Baltimore. At the time of writing, he is in custody in Pennsylvania and awaiting trial in immigration court, which will take place in New Jersey. NBC News interviewed a handful of former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials about the case. These individuals said the case raises concerns about how quickly and often the federal government can conduct follow-up investigations into illegal migrants who have already crossed the border.

According to FOX 5, Michael Greenberger, director of the Center for Homeland Security at the University of Maryland, said, “This guy was just happy to be here and didn’t want to cause any trouble. He wanted to remain unknown.” Greenberger said DHS has a critical need for additional resources, adding, “I suspect that if intelligence agencies had had the resources they needed, this would not have happened.”

Because there was no derogatory information about Attoev when he crossed the border illegally in 2022, the Uzbek government’s notice in 2023 was initially not checked against the list of immigrants living in the United States and awaiting their hearings. Elizabeth Neumann, who served as deputy secretary for counterterrorism and threat prevention at DHS from 2017 to 2020, said Congress must pass bipartisan border security legislation that was blocked by Republicans earlier this year.

She said: “My concern is that our counter-terrorism budgets have fallen dramatically over the last decade. And that means that we have (fewer) analysts doing this work. So it is more difficult to really do things on time if you have (fewer) resources.” In February, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said at a Senate hearing that ISIS remains a “significant counterterrorism problem” for the United States.

Multiple law enforcement officials reportedly told NBC News that the United States has not yet definitively determined whether Attoev is part of the ISI and whether he has ever carried out or planned to carry out an attack. The official said DHS continues to seek information and further question the man while he is in custody.

In response to this recent arrest, a DHS spokesperson said in a statement: “DHS screens and investigates individuals seeking to enter the United States to identify threats to national security or public safety and takes appropriate action, including preventing a person enters the country.

“Through screening and vetting, the information that was available to the U.S. government at the time is evaluated. If it is later determined that individuals who entered the country have been linked to information indicating a potential national security or public safety concern, DHS and our federal partners will investigate and detain, remove, or refer transfer them to other federal agencies for further investigation and prosecution, if necessary. In this case, the individual is in U.S. custody and there is no threat to public safety.

U.S. officials said Attoev was not on the terrorist watch list when he crossed the border illegally in 2022 or when he was arrested last April. In the 2023 fiscal year, which ended at the end of September 2023, there was an increase in border crossings. CBP reportedly had 736 encounters with illegal immigrants on the terrorist watch list at U.S. borders, the most in the past six years.