Fears of Violent Election Interference Increase With Immigration Controversy

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans have set a Friday deadline for a response from the Department of Homeland Security about how a suspected ISIS terrorist was able to enter the United States as part of a plot for an Election Day attack.

The Afghan national was arraigned last week in federal court in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The incident adds to FBI warnings that continue this week about a heightened terrorist threat ahead of next week’s national elections.

It also inflames controversy over the presidential campaign issue of immigration policy.

Other efforts to disrupt the election appear to be coming from China, Russia and Iran through disinformation campaigns on the internet.

In the case of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, FBI agents arrested him this month after he allegedly purchased rifles and ammunition from an undercover law enforcement agent. A judge ordered him held without bond on charges that include conspiring and attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization, namely ISIS.

Court filings by prosecutors say the 27-year-old planned to sell off his personal possessions, send his family back to Afghanistan, buy assault rifles and “stage a violent attack” intended to disrupt the U.S. election.

The attack would have been targeted at “large gatherings of people,” according to prosecutors. Afterward, Tawhedi planned to commit suicide.

The case attracted attention from the Senate Judiciary Committee on evidence Tawhedi entered the United States in September 2021 and is awaiting immigration proceedings to determine whether he would be granted permanent residency and a path to citizenship.

Republicans on the committee said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that Biden administration immigration policies resulted in Tawhedi not being properly vetted.

“We remain deeply troubled by the increasing likelihood that foreign extremists may successfully exploit the weaknesses of our immigration system or our southern border to commit an act of political violence or an act of terror here on U.S. soil, and the policies of the Biden-Harris administration have only made matters worse,” the letter said.

Former President Donald Trump raised similar issues Sunday at his political rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden when he said that his Democratic opponent for president, Vice President Kamala Harris, “has imported criminal migrants from prisons and jails, insane asylums and mental institutions from all around the world, from Venezuela to the Congo.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans focused on Tawhedi as an example of a larger policy problem. They asked the Homeland Security Department secretary for a copy of his alien file so they can review it.

“It was President Biden and Vice President Harris’ disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that led to Tawhedi being in the United States in the first place,” their letter said. “In the chaos following the withdrawal, the Biden-Harris administration paroled into the U.S. over 77,000 Afghans with no or significantly incomplete security checks done on them when he was brought to the United States.”

Justice Department officials acknowledged threats of violence during the election next week in a letter to congressional leaders.

“In recent years, we have seen a dangerous increase in threats of violence directed at election officials, workers, and volunteers, as well as to federal and state officials, judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and other public servants,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote this month. 

To prepare for the threats, each FBI field office is linking with an “Elections Crime Coordinator” to organize investigations that combine local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Some of the election disruptions have already started, according to the FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

“Foreign threat actors are knowingly disseminating false claims and narratives that seek to undermine the American people’s confidence in the security and legitimacy of the election process,” the agencies said in a joint statement.

In the most recent example, Russian agents circulated a fake video on social media showing mail-in ballots for Trump being shredded in Pennsylvania, the FBI reported last week.

The video, which has been taken down, was “manufactured and amplified” by Russian agents, the FBI reported.

The video was part of “Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans,” a multi-agency statement said.

For more information, contact The Legal Forum (www.legal-forum.net) at email: [email protected] or phone: 202-479-7240.

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