Border Patrol agents reportedly released hundreds of Iranian nationals into the U.S. during President Joe Biden’s time in office, drawing national security concerns as military tensions escalate.
The Biden administration arrested 1,504 Iranian nationals during fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2024, releasing 729 of these individuals into the country, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data obtained by Fox News. The newly released data follows U.S. military airstrikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities, sparking vows of retaliation from the Islamic regime.
Iran has since responded to the airstrikes, launching missiles at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, according to The New York Times, citing the Iranian military. The success of the airstrikes, at the time of writing, is unclear, though no casualties have been reported from the airstrikes, per the Qatari Foreign Minister.
Qatar Foreign Minister says there are no reported casualties from the Iranian strikes on the U.S. air base.
— Wallace H. White (@WallHWhite) June 23, 2025
The data suggest nearly half of all Iranians — who are considered Special Interest Aliens by immigration authorities — caught illegally crossing the border under the Biden administration were eventually released into the U.S.
Border czar Tom Homan, tasked with leading the Trump administration’s deportation operations, said these are just the individuals the government knows about.
“Under Joe Biden, we had over 10 million people cross that border,” Homan said Sunday during a media appearance. “But my biggest concern from day one — beyond the fentanyl, beyond the sex trafficking, women and children — were the two million known gotaways.”
“Over two million people crossed that border,” Homan continued. “We don’t know who they are, where they came from, because they got away, because Border Patrol was so overwhelmed with the humanitarian crisis that Biden created.”
Amid the worst southern border crisis in history, Border Patrol agents operating under the Biden administration were overwhelmed with unprecedented levels of foreign nationals in its custody, forcing the agency to release many of the individuals in their custody — including foreign nationals of particular concern to the U.S. A total of 12 Iranian nationals were released into the country in fiscal year 2021, 40 released in fiscal year 2022, 229 released in fiscal year 2023 and 448 released in fiscal year 2024, according to Fox News’s CBP data.
“The leading state sponsor of terrorism exploited the Biden administration’s weak border policies for 4 years,” Texas GOP Rep. August Pfluger said Sunday of the released Iranians. “Now, 729 Iranians with unknown terror connections are currently in our country, which [is one] of the largest national security vulnerabilities we have ever experienced.”
“We must act swiftly to find these individuals immediately,” Pfluger continued.
The U.S. military Saturday night launched a coordinated aerial assault on three of Iran’s top nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan. The military operation, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, is believed to have obliterated the country’s nuclear capabilities, eliminating the threat that Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism around the world, could utilize nuclear weapons.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has since warned of a “heightened threat environment in the United States.” While not citing any specific threats, DHS deemed “low-level cyber attacks” by pro-Iranian hacktivists to be likely.
With the U.S.-Mexico border currently experiencing historically low levels of illegal migrant activity, far fewer foreign nationals are being released into the country by border officials. The Trump administration touted the release of zero migrants into the U.S. during the month of May — a far cry from the 62,000 illegal migrants released into the country in May 2024.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Editors Note: This article has been updated to reflect information about the recent Iranian missile strikes against the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
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