Federal authorities successfully deported some of the eight Tajik migrants suspected of having ties to ISIS and planning at least one U.S. attack before being arrested in New York and two other cities.

Tajikistan’s squad of suspected terrorists crossed the U.S. southern border, some illegally — and others using the Harris-Biden administration’s CBP One phone app.

“In close coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), these individuals were arrested in June, have remained in ICE custody since then, and have either already been removed from the United States or remain in ICE custody. ICE while awaiting the completion of their removal proceedings,” a Department of Homeland Security representative said in a statement.

“The arrest and deportation of these individuals demonstrates the successful collaboration and partnership between DHS and the FBI to disrupt and dismantle potential national security threats,” the representative said.

DHS would not say exactly how many accused terrorists — who were not previously on any U.S. terror watch list — have been deported so far or which country(ies) arrested them.

A Homeland Security source said that’s how the system should work — even though, too often, it doesn’t.

“Because they are part of a terrorist organization, the agency does not want to take on that responsibility,” he said of the recently deported suspects. “Unfortunately, no one cares about the freedom of a rapist.”

The source added that even if a migrant does not have a criminal record, if they cross the border illegally, they must be deported.

“ICE should deport all illegal aliens, regardless of their criminal record, not just certain people for political reasons,” the source said.

The source said the agency was tracking more members of the suspected ISIS-linked group. It was unclear whether that included anyone who crossed the border illegally to enter the United States.

The eight were arrested in the Big Apple, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

During the multistate operation, authorities wiretapped one of the suspects, who was talking about bombs, sources previously said. The group had discussed targeting “infidels” in the United States.

It was later discovered that the group was planning an attack on an unnamed LGBTQ establishment in the City of Brotherly Love, a congressional source told the Post.

Before the arrests, FBI Director Chris Wray warned that ISIS could take advantage of the open southern border and briefed lawmakers on the possibility of a “coordinated attack” that could take place on U.S. soil after an attack by ISIS-K on a concert hall in Washington. Moscow, led by citizens of Tajikistan, killed 145 people and injured hundreds more.

“Our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups may be inspired by events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home,” Wray told the House Appropriations Subcommittee at the time. .

“But the possibility of a coordinated attack here at home, similar to the ISIS-K attack we saw in the Russian concert hall a few weeks ago, is increasingly concerning,” Wray said.

He also earlier warned the Senate Intelligence Committee that the office was aware of a human smuggling operation with ties to terrorists from ISIS-affiliated groups operating on the southern border.

“I want to be a little cautious about how far I can go in open session, but there is a particular network, in which some of the foreign facilitators of the smuggling network have links to ISIS, which is of great concern to us and which we” “We have made a tremendous effort with our partners to investigate,” said the FBI director in response to a question from Senator Marco Rubio (Republican of Florida).

“Exactly what this network is doing is, again, the subject of our current investigation,” he added.

The office was also investigating a Turkish smuggler linked to ISIS who helped dozens of Uzbek migrants cross the southern border, CNN reported in August.

As illegal immigration into the United States has reached record levels in recent years, the number of terrorism suspects arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border has also increased.

Border agents arrested 382 migrants whose names were on the U.S. terrorism watch list between fiscal years 2021 and August 2024, compared to 11 in fiscal years 2017 through 2020, according to federal data.

But some have managed to slip through the cracks – again and again.

One such terror suspect whose name was on the watchlist but still managed to get through was 48-year-old Mohammad Kharwin. He crossed the California border illegally in March 2023 and was released into the United States before his alleged ties to terrorism were discovered.

It took nearly a year for the FBI to notify ICE of his alleged membership in the U.S.-designated foreign terrorist group Hezb-e-Islami and for him to be arrested.

Kharwin was finally arrested in February, but was released again by a judge who had not been informed of his alleged affiliation with terrorism. The authorities then rushed in and arrested him again.

Border Patrol agents also arrested and released a 27-year-old Somali national in March 2023, who was not identified by name but was later found to be a “confirmed member of Al Shabaab”, an organization designated terrorist, ICE had earlier admitted. .

The man, allegedly “involved in the use, manufacture or transportation of explosives or firearms,” was in the U.S. for nearly a year before ICE was able to arrest him in Minnesota.