ISIS arrests: How many are from travel ban countries?

Advertisemen

"NY needs to fall," wrote Talha Haroon to an undercover FBI agent. "It's a must."

"I'm mad excited," Haroon wrote, according to the criminal complaint. "And may Allah cause great destruction to the filthy kuffars (non-believers) by our hands."

They all lived outside the United States, so one of them rented a cabin near New York where they could build bombs, practice target shooting and coordinate logistics.

"I wanna kill them in the thousands," Haroon wrote, according to the complaint. "We have to make an ocean out of their blood ... I wish we had someone to record their terrified screams."

Stories like these, coupled with a wave of terror attacks in Europe, have heightened the fear that ISIS militants around the globe could be prepping to execute attacks on US soil.

One of President Donald Trump's first major actions after taking office was signing an executive order placing temporary travel restrictions on seven Muslim-majority countries and suspending refugee admissions for 120 days. The executive order has been repeatedly revised in response to court challenges.

On Wednesday, the new iteration of the travel ban goes into effect. People from eight countries -- six of them Muslim-majority nations -- will either be prohibited from entering the United States or will face enhanced background checks.

The Trump administration says the policy will keep Americans safe from terrorism. But plots like the US Project illustrate the complexity in combating ISIS and other jihadist organizations. The travel ban would not have stopped the conspirators from coming to the United States. None of them are from the travel ban countries. Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy is a Canadian citizen, Haroon is an American citizen living in Pakistan and the Russel Salic is from the Philippines, according to court records.

Federal law enforcement foiled the plot in 2016. The undercover FBI agent posed as an ISIS sympathizer and recorded their communications. El Bahnasawy, the Canadian, was arrested in New Jersey and pleaded guilty last year while the two others have been detained outside the US and are awaiting extradition.

ISIS arrests and the travel ban

There have been no domestic ISIS attacks carried out by individuals from the travel ban countries since the Supreme Court allowed portions of Trump's executive order to be implemented in June. Does that mean the policy has reduced the domestic terror threat? In fact, since 1975 there hasn't been a terror attack that cost US lives on US soil by someone from one of the original travel ban countries, according to a study by the libertarian Cato Institute. But this CNN analysis is concerned specifically with ISIS-related arrests, in particular after the travel ban was enacted.

The cause-effect relationship is unclear. About 91% of the people arrested for ISIS-related offenses in the US since 2014 have been American citizens and immigrants/visitors from non-travel ban countries, according to a review of DOJ arrest announcements and...

Read More: ISIS arrests: How many are from travel ban countries?

Advertisemen