In April 2016, Judicial Watch reported that, over the past five years, the Obama administration had issued approximately 680,000 green cards to foreigners from Muslim countries. This information was provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). At that time, DHS disclosed that the US was admitting more than twice as many immigrants from Muslim nations, which were notorious for terrorist activity, than from the European Union.

The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) was a joint venture between the State Department and USCIS. Judicial Watch reported that “most of the refugee referrals for this program were made by the notoriously corrupt United Nations,” so it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that there were “gaping vulnerabilities in the selection process.”

FBI agents from the Tucson Joint Terrorism Task Force have arrested two Somali refugees who entered the US as part of this refugee resettlement program for “conspiring to provide material support to ISIS.”

Following a “months-long” undercover investigation, the Somalis, 21-year-old Ahmed Mahad Mohamed and 20-year-old Abdi Yemani Hussein, were arrested by the FBI. The FBI affidavit can be viewed here. The two are charged with “conspiring to provide material support and resources to ISIS.” Judicial Watch reports:

Mohamed and Hussein also discussed their desire and plans to join ISIS overseas and purchased airline tickets from Tucson to Cairo, Egypt to join the terrorist group. The affidavit includes online and personal communications between the suspects and undercover agents expressing their plan to behead non-believers of Islam like animals. “The best wakeup call is Islamic State to get victory or another 911,” according to one of Mohamed’s emails with an undercover agent. Hussein wrote that he wanted to blow up the White House and Tucson if anyone tries to stop him. Both men disclosed that they strived to be the most wanted terrorists in the world.

According to a Justice Department statement:

At the time of their arrest, Mohamed had obtained lawful permanent resident status and Hussein remained a refugee…Mohamed and Hussein planned to conduct an attack within the United States if they were unable to travel to Sinai to join ISIS.

Last fall, an Ethiopian couple who had entered the US through USRAP in 2014 and settled in Tucson were arrested for their ties to Al-Shabaab, a militant Somali group.

These arrests aren’t unique to Tucson. Similar cases have been reported throughout the US. Judicial Watch points out that “the refugee system, like all immigration programs, is vulnerable to exploitation from extremist groups seeking to send operatives to the West.” Terrorists are now finding their way into the country through our southern border. So are gang members and sex traffickers and vast quantities of powerful drugs.

We need to do better.