CBP arrests five Iranians at northern border amid security concerns

A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesman confirmed Tuesday that five Iranians were arrested while attempting to illegally cross the U.S. northern border with Canada.

“On July 1, Border Patrol Agents from the Champlain, New York Station, responded to suspicious activity near Mooers Forks, NY,” CBP’s Swanton Sector said on Facebook. “Agents located a minivan occupied by five citizens of Iran and two citizens of Uzbekistan.”

The Champlain Station is part of the Swanton Sector. Swanton is a rural town in Vermont near Highway 89 just south of the Canadian Border. 

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CBP said that all seven men had been previously arrested for attempting to cross the border illegally. All seven aliens are detained and awaiting deportation.

“They are currently detained and pending removal proceedings,” CBP said. “Border security is national security and directly correlates to public safety, Swanton Sector Agents remain vigilant and committed to protecting our borders and enforcing immigration laws.”

Earlier this month, a counterterrorism expert told Fox News Digital that Iranian terrorist sleeper cells could be hiding in plain sight. The U.S. military crippled several Iranian nuclear sites after targeted airstrikes on June 22. 

“Where these sleeper cells may be is in plain sight,” former FBI special agent and terrorism task force member Jonathan Gilliam said. “And that’s the real terrifying part of this is that putting people in place, as we’ve seen over the past four years, everyone’s scrambling because certain amounts of people could come in here and get in here.”

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Gilliam pointed to the Biden administration’s border policies as a reason for concern.

“They could even go to the border and say they [want to] seek asylum, and the Biden administration, instead of putting them into DHS housing or ICE housing and holding them there so they could have their first appearance. To be vetted and whether or not they get asylum,” he said. 

In a 2023 terrorism report released by the State Department in December of last year, the federal government outlined numerous instances of worrying behavior by Iranian nationals in western countries. 

“In 2023 the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment charging three individuals connected with Iran in a plot to assassinate an Iranian dissident in New York City,” that report said. “Also in 2023, a United Kingdom court found a man guilty of attempting to collect information for terrorist purposes on the London-based Iran International, a media company that is critical of the Iranian regime.” 

“In recent years, Albania, Belgium, and the Netherlands have all either arrested, convicted, or expelled Iranian government officials implicated in various terrorist plots in their respective territories. Denmark similarly recalled its ambassador from Tehran after learning of an Iran-backed plot to kill an Iranian dissident in that country.”

Fox News’ Adam Sabes contributed to this report.