Dozens of the U.S. citizens arrested in recent years on terror-related charges are immigrants admitted to the United States legally who later obtained citizenship.
More than 70 U.S. residents have been publicly arrested and charged with conspiring to help, attempting to help, or actually helping terror networks such as Islamic State in recent years. At least 15 of them received U.S. citizenship after being admitted to the country legally, including one of the Boston bombers.
Here are five examples.
Two immigrants from Pakistan who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship were convicted of plotting to detonate a bomb in New York City in 2012, and were sentenced to a combined 55 years in prison.
| Raees Qazi, 22, and Sheheryar Qazi, 32 |
Federal prosecutors accused a Somalian immigrant who became a U.S. citizen of plotting to "go to a military base in Texas and kill three or four American soldiers execution style." The man had trained with a terrorist group in Syria and was told to return to the U.S. and carry out an act of terror.
| Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, 23, whose brother was killed fighting in Syria |
An immigrant brought by his family from Kuwait at a young age and later approved for U.S. citizenship killed four Marines in a shooting rampage at two military centers in Chattanooga, Tenn., in July.
| Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24 |
A woman born in Saudi Arabia who obtained U.S. citizenship and taught pre-school in Queens, N.Y., was arrested on terror charges in April. She and a friend also living in Queens pledged allegiance to Islamic State and considered bombing a police funeral. FBI raids on their apartments turned up bomb-making materials, including propane tanks and a pressure cooker, in addition to bomb recipes and jihadi literature.
| Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31 |
An immigrant from Ghana who obtained U.S. citizenship was arrested in June and charged with conspiring to support a terrorist group after investigators allegedly found he was plotting a terror attack on New York City landmarks in the name of Islamic State.
| Munther Omar Saleh, 20, who was studying electrical circuitry at a college specializing in aeronautics in Queens |
The Obama administration has ignored a request from Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Jeff Sessions for detailed immigration histories of 72 U.S. residents arrested in the past year on terror-related charges.
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