U.S. authorities said on Thursday that two people have been arrested on terrorism-related charges in California and Texas, including a refugee from Iraq who is charged with lying to federal investigators about his travels to Syria.
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Two Palestinian men who were born in Iraq and came to the United States as refugees have been arrested in connection with terrorism investigations, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
One, a man from Houston named Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, was charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS.
Al-Jayab also reportedly faces charges of going to fight in Syria and later making untruthful statements about his activities to investigators.
Federal authorities arrested two refugees on terror-related charges January 7, 2016.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Delaney ordered him held without bail.
Ward says the California and Texas arrest appear to be linked, and there’s a third case in Wisconsin that is also linked to the arrests. There is no indication that Al Hardan, an Iraqi refugee, actually traveled to Syria.
The sources said Hardan is known as “Individual I” in Jayab’s court complaint.
The indictment claims that Hardan, who arrived in the U.S.in 2009 and became a legal permanent resident in 2011, concealed his association with ISIS on his citizenship application in August 2014 and lied about receiving machine gun training when he was interviewed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“For months, (they) have been warning that taking in a lot of refugees without proper background and vetting procedures is opening the door to problems”, Ward says.
Prosecutors were reported to have asked the judge to detain Al Hardan pending his trial. The two men had been communicating about weapons and training, according to prosecutors.
According to The Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration between during the 2015 fiscal year The United States had admitted a total of 69,933 refugees from more than 50 countries around the world.
If found guilty on the count of providing ISIS support, Al Hardan could be sentenced to 20 years in a federal prison and a 250,000 US dollars fine.
When FBI Director James Comey testified before the House Homeland Security Committee, he admitted that the government has no real way to conduct background checks on refugees.
The brother of a Houston man accused of supporting Islamic State militants says he had never heard his sibling express support for the group.
If convicted he could face up to eight years in federal prison.
He told the judge he lives in a Houston-area apartment, is married and has a child.
More information and testimony in the case may be forthcoming in a bond hearing now set for next Wednesday.
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He was appointed an attorney, David Adler, who did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Al-Jayab is scheduled to appear in federal court in Sacramento on Friday, Horwood said. “The charges are basically aiding and abetting a terrorist organization, procuring or attempting to procure American citizenship under false pretenses, and making false statements to the federal government in order to make sure those things occur”, said United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson. That could come if they’re indicted through a grand jury in the coming weeks.
