ICE Arrests Suspected Al-Qaida Operative In Major Sanctuary City

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested a suspected Al-Qaida member residing in a city notorious for refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Authorities apprehended a Tajikistan-born Russian national in the early morning hours of May 23 in Philadelphia, according to ICE. The individual — who the agency has not yet identified — illegally crossed into the U.S. in 2023 and was eventually released into the country by the Biden administration before his alleged connections to terrorism were known.

“Arresting individuals linked to terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaida reaffirms our unwavering commitment to safeguard the homeland,” Enforcement and Removal Operations Philadelphia acting Field Office Director Brian McShane said in a prepared statement.

“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 continued.

Immigration officials first encountered the 39-year-old Russian national in March 2023 at a port of entry along the California-Mexico border and charged him as an inadmissible alien because he didn’t have an immigrant visa, according to ICE. He was subsequently served with a notice to appear before an immigration judge and paroled into the country.

Earlier this year, 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, according to ICE. Following his arrest in Philadelphia, the agency says he will remain in their custody pending his removal from the U.S.

“I commend the dedicated men and women of ICE and the FBI for their tireless efforts and steadfast resolve in protecting this great nation,” McShane stated of the arrest.

This is not the first time federal officials have taken custody of foreign nationals with Tajik-Russian origin suspected of terrorist activity.

Eight Tajik nationals suspected of ISIS ties were arrested in June 2024 during a nationwide sting operation that spanned several major cities. The operation was also conducted in coordination between ICE and the FBI, with most of the alleged terrorists deported back to Tajikistan and Russia within months of their arrests, according to the Department of Homeland (DHS).

Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump immediately worked to reduce illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico through a series of executive actions and bolstered interior enforcement via ICE arrests and deportations. However, administration officials have railed against sanctuary city policies that, they say, obstruct ICE’s mission.

The Trump administration in May included Philadelphia in a now-deleted list of hundreds of alleged sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for lower levels of immigration, has long labeled the city a sanctuary haven, pointing to a 2014 mayoral executive order that restricts how ICE detainers can be honored.

The city’s top prosecutor has also allegedly gone above and beyond to keep illegal migrants with criminal histories out of reach for ICE agents.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner — who was supported into office by liberal billionaire George Soros — provided taxpayer-funded consultations to migrants charged with various violent crimes, including rape, robbery and homicide by vehicle, in an alleged effort to help them avoid convictions that would lead to their deportation, according to documents obtained by the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a hawkish immigration group in Washington, D.C.

Kranser created an immigration counsel position in his office for the purpose of lowering charges against foreign nationals to help them avoid deportation, his office has previously stated.

The Biden administration, which oversaw the worst years of illegal immigration in U.S. history, has been accused of not adequately vetting the waves of foreign nationals who entered the country during its tenure.

Federal authorities failed to properly screen all of the thousands of Afghan evacuees who entered the U.S. after the Biden administration’s botched pullout of the country in August 2021, a DHS Inspector General report concluded in September 2022. A follow-up report by the DHS Inspector General in 2024 concluded that federal authorities were not properly monitoring the thousands of Afghan evacuees currently living in the U.S.

At least 99 foreign nationals on the terrorist watchlist were allowed into the country under the Biden administration, according to a congressional report released in August.