The Biden administration’s disastrous open border policies created a national security nightmare.
Now the full extent of the damage is coming to light.
And ICE caught one terrorist that proves Biden’s border crisis was worse than anyone thought.
Al-Qaida operative was walking free in sanctuary city Philadelphia
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents made a chilling arrest in the early morning hours that should send shockwaves through every American community.
Federal agents apprehended a 39-year-old Tajikistan-born Russian national in Philadelphia who is suspected of being a current or former member of Al-Qaida.
The terrorist suspect had been living freely in the United States after the Biden administration released him into the country in 2023.
"Arresting individuals linked to terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaida reaffirms our unwavering commitment to safeguard the homeland," Brian McShane, acting Field Office Director for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations in Philadelphia said.
The suspected terrorist illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in March 2023 at a California port of entry.
Immigration officials encountered him without proper documentation and charged him as an inadmissible alien because he didn’t have an immigrant visa.
Rather than detaining this foreign national who had no legal right to be in America, the Biden administration made a catastrophic decision.
They served him with a notice to appear before an immigration judge and then paroled him into the country.
This suspected Al-Qaida operative was then free to disappear into American communities while his immigration case wound through the system.
Tajikistan government sounds alarm about suspected terrorist
The Biden administration’s vetting process was so inadequate that they had no idea they had released a suspected terrorist into the homeland.
It wasn’t until this year that Tajikistan government officials declared the individual to be a fugitive of the law and suspected of being a current or past member of Al-Qaida.
Only then did federal authorities begin to track down this dangerous individual who had been walking free in America for over a year.
The arrest required close coordination between ICE and the FBI to locate and apprehend the suspect in Philadelphia.
"Through close collaboration with our outstanding partners at the FBI, we have taken decisive action to make our communities safer and prevent potential threats to the American people," McShane said.
Following his arrest, the suspected terrorist will remain in ICE custody pending his removal from the United States.
Philadelphia’s sanctuary policies made the situation even more dangerous
The fact that this suspected Al-Qaida operative was found in Philadelphia makes the situation even more alarming.
Philadelphia has long been identified as a sanctuary city that refuses to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
The Trump administration included Philadelphia in a list of hundreds of alleged sanctuary jurisdictions that obstruct ICE’s mission to remove dangerous criminals and suspected terrorists.
The city implemented a 2014 mayoral executive order that restricts how ICE detainers can be honored.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has made the situation even worse by actively working to keep illegal aliens with criminal histories out of reach of ICE agents.
Krasner, who was backed by globalist billionaire George Soros, provided taxpayer-funded consultations to migrants charged with violent crimes including rape, robbery, and homicide by vehicle.
His office created an immigration counsel position specifically for the purpose of lowering charges against foreign nationals to help them avoid deportation.
These sanctuary policies created the perfect environment for dangerous individuals like suspected terrorists to hide and operate within American communities.
This is part of a much larger pattern under Biden
The arrest of this suspected Al-Qaida operative is not an isolated incident.
Eight Tajik nationals suspected of ISIS ties were arrested in June 2024 during a nationwide sting operation conducted by ICE and the FBI.
Most of these alleged terrorists were eventually deported back to Tajikistan and Russia within months of their arrests.
The Biden administration oversaw the worst years of illegal immigration in U.S. history and has been repeatedly accused of not adequately vetting the waves of foreign nationals who entered the country.
Federal authorities failed to properly screen thousands of Afghan evacuees who entered the U.S. after Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
A Department of Homeland Security Inspector General report concluded that federal authorities were not properly monitoring the thousands of Afghan evacuees currently living in the U.S.
The scale of the security failures is staggering.
At least 99 foreign nationals on the terrorist watchlist were allowed into the country under the Biden administration, according to a congressional report.
President Donald Trump has immediately worked to reduce illegal immigration and bolster interior enforcement through ICE arrests and deportations since returning to the White House.
But the damage from four years of Biden’s open border policies will take years to fully repair.
How many more suspected terrorists are currently walking free in American communities because of the Biden administration’s reckless policies?