Trump alleges Biden provided ‘material support’ to Tajik terrorists
Former President Trump accused President Biden of providing “material support” to the eight people arrested in the United States who are suspected to have ties to the Islamic State.
“In addition to all of his other well documented offenses, crooked Joe Biden is now also guilty of providing material support for terrorism,” Trump said at his birthday event in Florida on Friday, much of which was spent talking about his Democratic opponent.
The former president alleged that under Biden’s leadership, “there’s been a 3,000 percent increase” in the number of people on the country’s terror watch list and they are crossing into the United States from the southern border.
“Our country is going to pay a steep price for many, many years,” Trump said, highlighted by Mediaite. “This is a terrible thing that’s happened.”
On Wednesday, reports circulated that several people from Tajikistan with ties to ISIS had been arrested in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
The eight people entered through the southern border last spring and passed through the U.S. government’s screening process.
The individuals crossed the border without proper documents and were released into the U.S. with notices to appear in immigration court. Law enforcement later became concerned with their presence and began tracking them.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force was monitoring the individuals and worked with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to make the arrests.
They are not in detention and face deportation proceedings, but it was reported that it’s difficult to deport people to Tajikistan due to operation and diplomatic reasons.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security confirmed the arrests of “non-citizens” and said the U.S. as been in a “heightened threat environment.”
In April, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the U.S. is facing more threats from violent extremists as of late, particularly since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
He said officials are concerned about people targeting vulnerabilities at the southern border shared with Mexico.