National security leaders are growing increasingly concerned about Iranians with ties to the Revolutionary Guard attempting to enter the United States illegally from Canada and harm Americans as the war overseas continues.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin disclosed this week that federal immigration authorities from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Canadian police had begun to encounter Iranian nationals attempting to enter the U.S. illegally along its northern border, with the number of encounters increasing day by day. Mullin did not provide additional details.
Recommended Stories
“Because of the amount of pressure President Trump has put on Iran with the peace through strength, is we’ve seen an unusual amount of Iranian nationals trying to sneak in through our northern, not southern, border because President Trump’s policies have closed the southern border,” Mullin told Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures. “Our Northern border, we’ve seen arrests go up daily on Iranian nationals.”
Asked if those arriving from Iran were fleeing violence or affiliated with the Guard, Mullin said “most” of the individuals had ties “directly to the IRGC.” The Guard is the militant arm of the Iranian regime and is known for supporting terrorism across the Middle East.
“It’s worrisome because the amount of … people that have direct ties to the IRGC,” Mullin added. “The IRGC is not the regular army of Iran. The IRGC is the true believers of this radical regime.”
Mullin’s comment was the first time the Trump administration pointed to evidence that the national security threat to the U.S. was growing as the war closed out its fourth month.
Just last week, one person traveling with the Iranian soccer team was barred by U.S. customs officials from entering the country for a FIFA World Cup game in Seattle.
“Most teams travel with around 120 people. That’s their support staff, doctors, coaches, everybody else that comes along with them and their delegation,” Mullin said. “We accepted 53 individuals coming in. The rest of the individuals that Iran had tried to bring in also had direct ties to the IRGC and aren’t their normal traveling group.”
Former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Johnathan Fahey, said the alleged plot to smuggle in a Guard member with the country’s soccer team was not surprising.
“This would be certainly one of the easiest, cleverest ways to get people in the country, is say they’re part of the soccer team,” Fahey told Bartiromo on Fox Business on Monday.
The northern border crossings and FIFA incidents are only the latest since the Biden administration departed.
Federal officials previously raised concerns about Iranians who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration and were released into the country or simply got away without being caught.
From fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2024, while former President Joe Biden was in office, more than 1,500 Iranian nationals illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico and were let into the country, according to Fox News.
Fahey said what was “more concerning” was that 2 million immigrants were observed entering the country illegally from Mexico, but Border Patrol agents were unable to arrest them before they disappeared into the country.
NEARLY 900,000 DEPORTED BY ICE UNDER TRUMP AS FLIGHTS SOARED TO NEW HIGH IN MAY
“Who was in that group and how many Iranians affiliated with IRGC or anything else were in there?” Fahey said.
The DHS recently announced that the country was in a “heightened threat environment” following U.S. military strikes on key nuclear sites in Iran. The Iranian regime has vowed payback for the attacks.
