Six individuals that are believed to be connected to ISIS have been arrested by Immigration and Custom Enforcement in a three-city sting. 

The men were arrested after a warning from the FBI led to sting operations across New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. The individuals had been released by the Biden administration at the southern border with a court date set for next year.

“Remember the Boston Marathon [bombing]? I’m afraid something like that might happen again or worse,” one ICE source said, the New York Post reported.

CBS News reported that there did not appear to be an active terror plot, but that “derogatory information about the individuals surfaced after they crossed into the U.S. and came to the attention of law enforcement.”

In the last few days, ICE agents “arrested several non-citizens” in operations carried out “in close coordination with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force,” the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI said in a joint statement when reached by the Sun about the arrests. “The individuals arrested are detained in ICE custody pending removal proceedings,” the agencies note, adding that America “has been in a heightened threat environment.” 

The agencies said they are “working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security. ”

In a 2024 homeland threat assessment, the Biden administration warned that the terrorist groups including ISIS are “seeking to rebuild overseas, and they maintain worldwide networks of supporters that could seek to target the homeland.” 

The agencies also recently warned of an increased threat risk during June because of Pride Month as terrorists have targeted LGBTQ groups, rhetoric, and events in the past. 

The number of migrants with terror ties has been surging in recent years, with one expert telling the Sun last year that Islamic terrorists pose a threat as “committed and unwavering” as they did on 9/11. 

“I think it’s a real possibility that we’re in trouble, that the threat is already here,” the former acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Mark Morgan, warned in October. “And our borders are still wide open for the threat to continue to come in.”

The FBI’s director, Chris Wray, warned earlier this year that in addition to the threat of homegrown terrorists, a potential “coordinated attack” could happen in America after an ISIS attack at Moscow that killed 145 people, the Post notes.