Fears in the United States of a coordinated terrorist attack carried out by sleeper cells under the direction of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have been growing and, in the past 24 hours, entered the mainstream of American political debate.
Approximately 1,500 Iranians were detained at various US border crossings during the Biden administration, but it is the unknown number who passed through undetected that has alarmed officials, who told the New York Post that sleeper cells represent a potentially grave threat to the nation.
"We have no idea how many people managed to get through, of course. The numbers are deeply troubling," Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who previously served as US ambassador to Japan during Trump's first term, said.
About half of the Iranians who were detained were released into the country, Hagerty said, apparently referring to a Fox News report from last year stating that 1,504 Iranians were detained at the border between 2021 and 2024, with 700 released into the country pending legal proceedings.
Hagerty's remarks came after federal authorities issued a security warning about a possible Iranian effort to activate pre-positioned dormant assets, even as much of Tehran's senior leadership has been eliminated through relentless US and Israeli airstrikes. The warning has raised concerns that Iran – which has continued to strike its Gulf neighbors and whose retaliatory operations have led to the deaths of at least 13 American service members – may find a way to strike on American soil and sow panic and demoralization.
