The fear that Iran has planted sleeper terror cells or terrorists in the country appears to be well-founded.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) collared 11 Iranian illegal aliens during the weekend. One was an army sniper; another, a Revolutionary Guard veteran with ties to a terrorist outfit. A third is a terror suspect.
The rest are the usual motley crew of thugs and criminals.
The arrests show not only the acute national security peril of the Biden administration’s policy of importing millions of illegal aliens without vetting, but also the prescience of those who warned about it but were ignored.
Dangerous Iranians
The arrests followed closely border czar Tom Homan’s revelation to Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that the Biden administration caught and released 1,272 Iranians who entered the country illegally.
“I’ve said in the last four years, my biggest concern was this open border,” Homan said. “It was the biggest national security vulnerability this country has ever seen.”
With the arrests of the 11 Iranians on June 22 and June 23, that vulnerability comes into focus.
Among the cultural enrichers ICE bagged this time is Ribvar Karimi, arrested in Locust, Alabama. “Karimi reportedly served as an Iranian Army sniper from 2018 to 2021 and at the time of his arrest, in his possession, he had an Islamic Republic of Iran Army identification card,” DHS reported:
He entered the U.S. on a K-1 visa, which is reserved for aliens engaged to be married to American citizens, in October 2024 under the Biden administration. Karimi never adjusted his status — a legal requirement — and is removable from the United States. He’s currently in ICE custody, where he’ll remain pending removal proceedings.
Another possible terrorist is Mehran Makari Saheli. ICE picked up the 56-year-old veteran of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, “with admitted connections to Hezbollah,” in St. Paul, Minnesota. He received a final order of deportation in 2022, but the Biden administration didn’t deport him. This estimable individual has a conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The others arrested include two in Houston, Texas.
Behzad Sepehrian Bahary Nejad landed here on a student visa on December 9, 2016. DHS reported:
On Aug. 19, 2017, Harris County police arrested him for assaulting a family member by impeding breathing; his wife told the local assistant district attorney that Sepehrian was threatening her and obtained a restraining order against him. She also alleged he was threatening her family in Iran. On July 23, 2018, the University of Texas terminated Sepehrian’s status after he was placed on academic suspension. An immigration judge ordered him removed on Oct. 10, 2019, after he was released on an immigration bond; he filed a motion to reopen his case, which a Department of Justice immigration judge denied.
The Trump administration didn’t remove him, and neither did the Biden Administration.
Hamid Reza Bayat received a final order of deportation on Aug. 4, 2005. “Twice convicted of drug crimes and once convicted of driving on a suspended license, Bayat served time before receiving his final order of removal,” DHS explained.
The Others
The others arrested are:
- In Tempe, outside Phoenix, Arizona, Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand, an Iranian citizen with a final order of removal who was permitted to leave of his own accord. He didn’t. He has a conviction for threatening a law enforcement officer and illegally possessing a firearm as an alien.
- Arrested with Eidivand was one Linet Vartaniann, a U.S. citizen, who “threatened to open fire on ICE officials if they entered her home, then said she would go outside and ‘shoot ICE officers in the head,’” DHS alleged.
- In Gluckstadt, Mississippi, Yousef Mehridehno, a former lawful permanent resident. “The U.S. government terminated Mehridehno’s residency in October 2017 after determining he lied on his original visa application and committed potential marriage fraud,” DHS reported. Worse still, he is “listed as a known or suspected terrorist.”
- In Colorado Springs, Colorado, Mahmoud Shafiei and Mehrdad Mehdipour, two more grateful “immigrants.” Shafiei was ordered removed in January 1987. “His criminal history includes state and federal convictions for drug crimes and arrests for assault and child abuse,” DHS reported. U.S. Border Patrol ran into Mehdipour near Rio Grande Valley, Texas, and “processed him as an expedited removal.”
- In San Francisco, Bahman Alizadeh Asfestani, 62, whose criminal resumé includes convictions for petty theft and “possession of a controlled substance for sale.”
- On June 23 in Buffalo, N.Y., Mohammad Rafikian, 65, who has convictions for “grand larceny, schemes to defraud, criminal impersonation and practicing as an attorney.”
- And on the same day, in San Diego, Arkavan Babk Moirokorli, 57, forger.
Homan Warning, FBI Letter
So ICE arrested an Iranian sniper, an Iranian linked to the Hezbollah terror outfit, and one ”known or suspected terrorist.”
“Under Joe Biden, we had over 10 million people cross that border,” Homan told Bartiromo, including not just Iranians but Russians and Chinese. But as well, he added, are two million known gotaways — those who slipped by the Border Patrol.
“We don’t know who they are or where they came from, because they got away,” he continued.
And those gotaways don’t count the millions whom Biden unlawfully released.
As 10 retired FBI officials told Capitol Hill leaders in January last year, a “startling number” of the illegals are on the terror watch list or are from terror-designated nations, the officials wrote, along with China and Russia.
“These men are potential operators in what appears to be an accelerated and strategic penetration, a soft invasion, designed to gain internal access to a country that cannot be invaded militarily in order to inflict catastrophic damage if and when enemies deem it necessary,” the officials said.
The Biden administration didn’t care.
