Headline Roundup • June 23rd, 2025
Federal Agencies Warn of Iranian Sleeper Cells in US
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Several federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), have warned of potential terror threats from sleeper cells in the US.
The Details: A CBP memo sent by Commissioner Rodney Scott on Saturday said, “Thousands of Iranian nationals have been documented entering the United States illegally, and countless more were likely in the known and unknown got-a-ways.” The DHS warned on Sunday, “The likelihood of violent extremists in the Homeland independently mobilizing to violence in response to the conflict would likely increase if Iranian leadership issued a religious ruling calling for retaliatory violence against targets in the Homeland.” On June 19, before the US bombing, the FBI was reportedly already stepping up efforts to monitor sleeper cells.
For Context: The US joined Israel in its bombing of Iran with strikes on nuclear sites Saturday. President Trump said the strikes “totally obliterated” targets, but some experts and media outlets have pushed back on the narrative. Reports have also surfaced that Iran warned the US days before its strikes that it could activate sleeper cells to launch attacks inside the US.
How The Media Covered It: Various mainstream outlets covered different agencies’ warnings. The Independent (Lean Left bias) compiled different reporting attributed to CBS News (Lean Left), The Hill (Center), and Fox Business (Lean Right). One America News (Right) noted that the NYPD recently announced additional deployments in coordination with “federal partners.”
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Featured Coverage of this Story
AP
The United States has ramped up its monitoring of Iranian sleeper cells as President Donald Trump’s strikes on three major Iranian nuclear sites decisively propelled the U.S. into Israel’s war.
Following Saturday’s strikes, which Trump claimed “totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, both White House and FBI officials have been on high alert for Iranian sleeper cells.
Sleeper cells comprised of spies or terrorists hiding out in the U.S. or Western countries, remain inactive, often living quiet and unassuming lives working regular jobs until they are ordered to act on a mission. (Think Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, the...
The threat of sleeper cells in the U.S. has “never been higher,” though there are no current specific threats, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
A memo sent Saturday from CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott, obtained by The Hill’s sister network NewsNation, said “thousands of Iranian nationals have been documented entering the United States illegally and countless more were likely in the known and unknown got-a-ways.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned about potential terrorist sleeper cells activating in the United States following the U.S. attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.
The National Terrorism Advisory System released a bulletin on Sunday, warning Americans to stay vigilant as the “ongoing Iran conflict is causing a heightened threat environment in the United States.”
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