FBI director ‘very concerned’ about ‘ISIS ties’ to human smuggling network that uses southern border

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned Monday the bureau is “very concerned” about a human smuggling network with ties to ISIS terrorists that utilizes the southern border to gain entry into the US.

Wray confirmed the potential threat during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing and said the FBI, along with other federal authorities, have been actively investigating the human trafficking cell. 

“So, I want to be a little bit careful how far I can go in open session, but there is a particular network that, where some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have ISIS ties that we’re very concerned about and that we’ve been spending enormous amount of effort with our partners investigating,” the FBI director said in response to a question from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)

“Exactly what that network is up to is something that’s, again, the subject of our current investigation,” he added.

Last August, CNN reported that the bureau was investigating whether dozens of asylum-seekers from Uzbekistan were aided in traveling to the US-Mexico border by a Turkish smuggler with ties to ISIS. 

“That’s a threat stream that we’re very concerned about,” Wray told lawmakers about the incident when asked by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).

“We’re very actively investigating, working with DHS on both people whose travel was facilitated but also members of the facilitation network in some other way overseas,” he added. “There’s probably more I could share on that in closed session if you would like.”  

When asked by Cornyn if terrorists could be among the 1.8 million “gotaways,” or people who illegally made their way into the US without being apprehended by border agents, under the Biden administration, Wray suggested that it was a distinct possibility. 

“I think there are many ways the national security ramifications of the issues at the border are better reflected in some ways more by what we don’t know about the people who snuck in, provided fake documents or in some other way, got in when there wasn’t sufficient information about the time they came in to connect the dots,” Wray responded. 

About 2.5 million people — nearly the population of Chicago — were apprehended after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in fiscal 2023, which ended Sept. 30, in addition to an estimated 670,000 “gotaways.”

Fiscal 2022 set the previous record, with nearly 2.4 million apprehensions along the border — up from 1.7 million in fiscal 2021.