The arrest of two Iraq-born refugees on terror-related charges has recharged Capitol Hill calls for the Obama administration to pull back on plans to welcome thousands more refugees from Middle East warzones.
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He also faces two charges about providing false information to USA officials concerning his ties to Islamic State and being provided weapons training, it said.
He then traveled to Syria to fight with terrorist organizations in the area, authorities allege.
The suspect is an Iraqi citizen who emigrated to the United States in 2012 as a refugee from Syria, according to federal authorities.
Younis Mohammed Al Jayab and Ahmad Waleed Mahmood appeared in federal court in Milwaukee on Friday to hear the allegations against them in a criminal complaint.
The FBI says Al-Jayab described fighting in Syria as a teenager.
“O God, grant us martyrdom for your sake while engaged in fighting and not retreating; a martyrdom that would make you satisfied with us”, Al-Jayab wrote to Al Hardan, according to court documents.
There is no indication that either man came to the United States as a committed radical Islamist and concealed it during the process of being accepted as a refugee-the scenario that has been the basis of fear-mongering on the part of Republican presidential candidates and congressmen of both parties.
Greg Abbott released details on Thursday about the arrest of a terror suspect in Texas, federal prosecutors in Houston quickly moved to unseal the charges in the case and hastily put together a statement of their own. Officials pointed to their experience with Iraq as proof they could also screen out Syrians.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The two arrests have reignited the political debate over admitting refugees from the region into the U.S.
Authorities say Al-Jayab fought twice in Syria, including with a group later affiliated with Islamic State between November 2013 and January 2014. “And so if someone has never made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that would get their identity or their interest reflected in our database, we can query our database until the cows come home, but there will be nothing show up because we have no record of them”.
The arrests of the al-Jayab and al-Hardan immediately became fodder for the right-wing campaign against Syrian refugees and immigrants in general. It wasn’t clear whether they would be freed Friday or held over the weekend.
He now faces three charges, including the attempt to provide material support to ISIS, procurement of citizenship or naturalization unlawfully, and making false statements to investigators.
A federal prosecutor says a third man named in the complaint, Samer Mohammed Al Jayab, was arrested California.
The U.S. Justice Department also unveiled federal charges against another Iraqi refugee on Thursday, accusing Sacramento resident Aws Mohammed Younis al-Jayab of traveling overseas to fight alongside terrorist organizations and lying to U.S. authorities about it. He promised to provide weapons training to Al Hardan and advised him on how he would be assigned to the battlefield once he arrived in Syria.
There’ve been a lot of people charged with providing material support to terror groups in the U.S. According to the Anti-Defamation League, of the 78 individuals indicted on terror-related charges in 2015, 53 were accused of providing material support.
“There’s nothing to suggest Al-Jayab meant to harm anyone in this country”, he said in court.
Al Hardan, 24, appeared in a Houston federal court Friday.
Wearing glasses and a gray plaid shirt, Hardan told the judge that he made it through 11th grade at a school in Jordan. He did not say his occupation but added his wife does not work and his in-laws live in Dallas.
The “material support” charge is based on an extremely wide-ranging statute.
He and other GOP lawmakers urged the Senate to pass legislation to block refugees from Iraq and Syria until screening is improved.
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Judge Mary Milloy appointed attorney David Adler to represent Al Hardan, a refugee whose arrest was announced Thursday. Prosecutors want Al Hardan held without bond, saying he is a flight risk and a danger to the community.
