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Thursday, Apr. 3, 2025

Did the Biden administration knowingly admit hundreds of immigrants with ties to ISIS?

Carmela Guaglianone, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
no

Though federal officials in 2024 acknowledged that immigrants with possible ties to ISIS had been arrested in the U.S. — and that others had entered the country through an ISIS-affiliated human smuggling network — those links were not known at the time of the individuals’ admission. Customs and Border Patrol’s initial vetting of the arrivals did not raise any red flags, according to the Department of Homeland Security. 

Once federal authorities, through counter-terrorism initiatives, identified the potential ties to terrorist organizations like ISIS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement pursued arrests. 

Federal law generally prohibits anyone believed to be a member of a designated terrorist organization, as well as anyone who has engaged in what the U.S. considers terrorism-related activities, from entering the United States.

See a full discussion of this at Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.

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