Man with alleged ties to ISIS lived in US for two years prior to arrest by ICE: Report

A Uzbek man with alleged ties to the Islamic State reportedly lived in the United States for two years before he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month.

The migrant, Jovokhir Attoev, entered the U.S. through Arizona's border in 2022, and was apprehended by Border Patrol. But he was released into the country when he cleared a background check from ICE and Customs and Border Protection, two officials told NBC News.

The man was later wanted by Uzbekistan because of his alleged ties to ISIS, and a global notice for Attoev was posted in May of 2023. However, it still took ICE almost one more year to arrest Attoev in Baltimore. Federal officials noticed the alert while reviewing his application for asylum.  

Attoev is now in custody in Pennsylvania, and is waiting for an immigration trial in New Jersey. Lawyers for ICE are expected to argue that Attoev needs to remain in custody in order to get more information on his alleged ties to ISIS. 

Former Department of Homeland Security officials said the case is concerning because it raises questions on how often and quickly the department does follow-up vetting on migrants that are already in the country. But the department said it can only screen individuals based on information already available.

“DHS screens and vets individuals seeking to enter the United States to identify national security or public safety threats and takes appropriate action, to include preventing an individual from entering the country," the department told NBC in a statement. "Screening and vetting evaluates information available to the U.S. Government at that time.

"If individuals who have entered the country are later found to be associated with information indicating a potential national security or public safety concern, DHS and our federal partners investigate and we detain, remove, or refer them to other federal agencies for further vetting and prosecution as appropriate," the department continued. "In this case, the individual is in U.S. custody and there is no threat to public safety.”

Current and former DHS officials have also urged Congress to pass legislation that gives more funding to the department, especially for counterterrorism purposes. Counterterrorism budgets have decreased in recent years, according to Elizabeth Neumann, who served as assistant secretary for counterterrorism and threat prevention at the DHS from 2017 to 2020.

“The concern I have is that in the last decade or so our counterterrorism budgets have drastically decreased,” Neumann said. “And that means we have [fewer] analysts doing this work. So it is harder to do things in a really timely manner when you have [fewer] resources.”

Attoev's case comes amid a sharp rise in illegal border crossings under President Joe Biden's administration. Although the total number of migrants entering the country with ties to terrorism remains low overall, CBP had 736 encounters with migrants on the terrorist watchlist at U.S. borders in fiscal year 2023, which is the highest in six years.

Under former President Donald Trump, the highest year for migrants on the terrorist watchlist was 2019, when CPB reported that it had 541 encounters with migrants on the watchlist.