THE CENTER SQUARE—A new report published by the House Homeland Security Committee finds that “foreign jihadist networks and homegrown violent extremists” represent a “persistent terror threat to America.”
The committee’s report identifies over 50 cases in 29 U.S. states between April 2021 and September 2024, including dozens of attempts to provide material support to designated Islamist foreign terrorist organizations such as ISIS, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda, with individuals receiving military-type training from ISIS and Hezbollah as well as committing fraud.
The states with identified jihadist cases include Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.
The Homeland Security Committee notes that increased threats to Americans heightened after the ISIS-K-orchestrated terrorist attack in Afghanistan on Aug. 30, 2021, that killed 13 U.S. service members. Terrorism threats also escalated after the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed an estimated 1,200 with 200 hostages taken.
“From the Biden-Harris administration’s chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal and the spillover effects of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks against our ally Israel to the vulnerabilities caused by our wide-open borders, the United States is facing a dynamic and worsening terror threat landscape,” Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said.
Green added:
Foreign jihadist networks like ISIS and Hizballah, as well as homegrown violent extremists ideologically motivated by these terrorist groups, present security threats to the homeland. The Department of Homeland Security’s mission is to protect the American people from every threat at our doorstep. The system is blinking red yet again, as even the head of the FBI has noted. Despite heightened threats from terrorists, the Biden-Harris administration continues to demonstrate weak leadership on the world stage and fails to admit its policy failures that brought us here. We must change course and take the necessary actions to protect the homeland.
The Homeland Security Committee’s report lists examples of convictions of foreign nationals and American citizens, nearly all Muslim men, in 29 states. The dozens cited include:
- A Turkish man in Kentucky convicted of providing material support and receiving military-type training from ISIS.
- Two Jordanian illegal border crossers attempted to breach Marine Base Quantico.
- A British Muslim held hostage Jewish parishioners in a Colleyville, Texas, synagogue.
- A Pakistani man with ties to Iran charged in New York with attempting to commit an act of terrorism and murder-for-hire to assassinate American politicians.
- A Moroccan man in Minnesota sentenced to prison for joining and fighting with ISIS in Syria and receiving military training from and providing assistance to ISIS.
- A Muslim man in Florida sentenced to prison for supporting a foreign terrorist organization.
- A Pakistani man in Minnesota sentenced to prison for multiple offenses, including planning to conduct “lone wolf” terrorist attacks in the U.S.
- Two brothers in Indiana sentenced to prison for providing material support to a terrorist organization, including manufacturing and selling weapons.
- A Kosovo man in Brooklyn, sentenced to life in prison for providing material support to ISIS and serving as a high-ranking member of ISIS.
- An Uzbekistan national sentenced to centuries in prison for carrying out a terrorist attack in the name of ISIS in lower Manhattan in October 2017, killing eight.
- A Muslim man in Pittsburgh sentenced to prison for attempting to provide material support to ISIS and planning to bomb a church in the name of ISIS.
The report also highlights actions taken by the Justice and Treasury departments against individuals and groups connected to Islamic terrorist organizations.
The report was released 23 years after Sept. 11, 2001, when 19 men who were members of al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners to commit the largest terrorist attack in U.S. history, killing nearly 3,000.
The House committee also released the report after the Department of Homeland Security issued its threat report for 2025, warning of terrorism threats surrounding the Nov. 5 election and the Israel-Hamas war.
Prior to that, an international rescue organization issued an alert to Jews and Americans to remain vigilant in light of heightened terrorist threats before the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel and Jewish holidays.
In 2002, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act, creating the Department of Homeland Security to consolidate multiple federal agencies with one goal: to defend Americans from terrorist and national security threats. Twenty-three years later, DHS has serious deficiencies and its policies are potentially creating national security risks, according to multiple reports published by the Office of Inspector General.
In the most recent report released, the inspector general said current practices by DHS’ Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as CBP and ICE, “cannot ensure they are keeping high-risk noncitizens without identification from entering the country.” Likewise, the Transportation Security Administration “cannot ensure its vetting and screening procedures prevent high-risk noncitizens who may pose a threat to the flying public from boarding domestic flights.”
“CBP and ICE have policies and procedures for screening noncitizens, but neither component knows how many noncitizens without identification documents are released into the country,” the inspector general’s report says.
Originally published by The Center Square