WASHINGTON, D.C. — A string of terror-related attacks across the U.S. is raising new concerns about national security.
Those concerns coming as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains shut down and as a top counter-terrorism official in the Trump administration resigned abruptly Monday.
Recent attacks in Michigan, Virginia and New York have been committed by suspects with alleged ties to terror groups—including groups backed by Iran.
In Michigan, a man with suspected Hezbollah connections drove a vehicle into a synagogue outside Detroit. The attack came one week after the Israeli military said it killed the suspect’s brother, who Israel says was a Hezbollah commander.
In Virginia, authorities say a gunman with alleged ISIS ties opened fire inside an ROTC classroom at Old Dominion University, killing Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, an instructor who rushed to respond, and injuring two others.
In New York City, two suspects, accused of tossing improvised explosives near the home of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, have ties to ISIS, according to the Department of Justice.
“This was an alleged ISIS-inspired act of terrorism that could have killed American citizens,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi last week.
The recent attacks come as Operation Epic Fury stretches into its third week, and as the Department of Homeland Security remains shut down, now, for over a month.
“In just the last two weeks, we have had four jihadist attacks on American soil, all of which originated from perpetrators who were already inside the country. Every one of those attacks falls squarely under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, and the Democrats don’t want to fund it,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “Now they’re demanding we strip funding from the very agency responsible for stopping all of that… Democrats opened our borders wide to tens of millions of illegal aliens for four years under Joe Biden, including untold numbers of violent, hardened and repeat criminals. That is an objective fact,” Speaker Johnson continued.
Back in Washington, lawmakers are returning to Capitol Hill, divided and gridlocked over DHS funding.
“End this chaos and find a way forward,” said Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., the only Democrat that has voted with Republicans to fully fund DHS.
Most Democrats, however, are backing a fragmented approach aimed at reopening key agencies and paying essential employees while other divisions over immigration enforcement are addressed.
“We want to fund the Coast Guard, TSA, FEMA, CISA,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., during a floor speech last week.
The Senate voted on the Democrats’ fragmented measure to fund individual agencies instead of the entire department; however, the effort failed.
“If my colleagues on the Republican side object and we’re hit with a cyber-attack and aren’t fully prepared, they own that, not Democrats,” said Peters. “Let’s also be clear, the Trump administration has basically fired one-third of all of our cyber experts who would be on the front line protecting the homeland from a cyber-attack,” Peters added.
House Republicans said Monday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency of DHS, is the largest federal law enforcement agency and that any bill that reduces its funding weakens U.S. defenses against terrorist plots.
“It undermines the integrity of our borders and it disrupts lawful travel through U.S. ports of entry, including the millions of American and international travelers, through a process at our airports every single day,” said Johnson.
Meanwhile, a sudden resignation from Trump-appointed Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent.
“After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today. I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent said in a post sharing his resignation letter Monday.
Earlier Monday, Speaker Johnson disputed those claims and said, based off intel he and other high-ranking members have seen, that Iran posed an imminent threat in terms of both nuclear and missile capabilities. Whereas, House Democrats say the resignation proves a consistent pattern of President Trump doing things in office that he campaigned against.
