At least 20 alleged terrorists in the past three years were immigrants or refugees from the seven majority-Muslim nations President Trump temporarily banned migration from Friday.
Immigrants from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen won’t be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. for the next three months. Several journalists from outlets such as The Washington Post and Vox have complained that Trump picked the wrong countries as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Afghanistan aren’t covered in the temporary immigration bans. Some pundits or politicians have gone as far as to say no terror is caused by immigrants from these nations.
The Obama administration’s Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security refused to make public the immigration status of individuals implicated in terrorism, so the exact number of immigrant terrorists is unknown.
However, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest used publicly available information and identified at least 17 individuals from these seven nations that from March 2014 to June 2016 were implicated in terrorism. Eight of these are terrorists convicted for crimes mainly related to giving material support or attempting to give material support to ISIS.
For example, Abdinassir Mohamud Ibrahim, a Somali refugee, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2015 for conspiring to provide material support to the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab. Omar Faraj Saeed Al Harden, an Iraqi refugee who became a permanent legal resident, pled guilty in 2016 to providing material support to ISIS.
Since June 2016, men from these seven countries temporarily banned by Trump have continued to cause terror. At least one individual was indicted for terrorism charges from a country temporarily banned from entering the U.S., and at least one was convicted of terrorism charges.
There have also been two perpetrators of stabbings that left a total 21 individuals injured. These stabbings were both committed by Somalian refugees, one was at a mall in St. Cloud, Minn., the other was at Ohio State University.
Due to the executive order signed by Trump, within half a year the Department of Homeland Security will release the immigration status of terrorists.