‘Hard to Say’ That Recent Terror Is an Immigration Problem

Actually, it’s easy to say.

On Friday’s CNN This Morning, CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen claimed it was “hard to say” whether recent terror attacks have any connection to immigration. But the suspects’ backgrounds in four recent cases tell a very different story.

During the discussion, Dispatch columnist Michael Warren suggested everyone is using this violence for their own political agenda, but the assailants had an underlying antisemitic motive.

Bergen, however, rejected the idea that immigration played any role.

“As a factual matter, I just looked at the four cases we’ve been talking about the last two weeks. None of them involved immigrants, and they all involved U.S. citizens,” Bergen said.

Bergen concluded:

“So it’s going to be hard to say if this is a sort of immigration problem.”

But the suspects’ backgrounds in all four cases demolish Bergen’s claim.

In the Old Dominion University shooting in Norfolk, Virginia, authorities identified the suspect as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a 36-year-old former member of the Virginia Army National Guard. Jalloh previously pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support to ISIS.

In the failed bomb attack near New York City’s Gracie Mansion, two Pennsylvania teenagers were arrested after allegedly throwing improvised explosive devices that failed to ignite at anti–Muslim-immigration protesters. One suspect, 18-year-old Emir Balat of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, reportedly told investigators he had pledged allegiance to ISIS and had been radicalized through online propaganda. Authorities say Balat spent more than three months in Istanbul in 2025 and allegedly said he wanted his attack to be “even bigger” than the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

The second suspect, 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi of Newtown, Pennsylvania, is the U.S.-born son of Afghan immigrants who are naturalized citizens. Investigators say Kayumi frequently watched ISIS propaganda videos on his phone and reportedly blurted out “ISIS” when asked about his motive during his arrest. Authorities also said he had traveled internationally, including trips to Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Meanwhile, the suspect in a synagogue ramming attack in West Bloomfield, Michigan, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, is a Lebanese-born naturalized U.S. citizen who reportedly cited Israeli military actions in Lebanon as motivating his conduct.

In the Austin, Texas bar shooting, the suspect, Ndiaga Diagne, is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Senegal. Reports said Diagne was wearing a sweatshirt bearing the slogan “Property of Allah” and clothing displaying Iranian symbols. Police said a Quran was found in his vehicle.

Yet Bergen insisted that tightening immigration policies would have little effect on terrorism, arguing that radicalization occurs online.

“The Internet is what’s radicalizing people. You can’t stop the Internet,” he said. “So calls for additional immigration constraints… as a practical matter when it comes to terrorism, it’s not going to have any real effect.”

But Bergen’s argument ignores a basic point: if the perpetrators — or in some cases their families — had never been admitted to the United States, those attacks would not have occurred here.

Here’s the transcript.

CNN This Morning
3/13/26
6:47 am EDT

MICHAEL WARREN [of the Never Trumper Dispatch]: Everybody, every political actor here is sort of defining, you know, they’re going to be using these things at this point in our politics to sort of advance their own political agenda. 

I think the Trump administration is a leader in that front. But, I mean, if we just look at this particular attack and we look at all the attacks earlier in the program you went over in the last several years, you just cannot deny this particular antisemitic, you know, what is sort of driving these attacks is, I think, very specific, and it really, I think, Ted Deutch made a very good point. 

What’s happening 6,000 miles away, what’s happening in Israel, you know, the sort of arguments that, well, this man who made this attack may have had relatives who were killed by, in Lebanon, has nothing to do with 140 preschoolers in Michigan. 

The fact that they are Jewish seems to be, I think we cannot lose sight of the fact that whatever these political politicians, whether the Trump administration or whoever, are trying to make this about immigration or make this about what’s happening in the war, underlying all of it is this view that if it’s Jews, then it’s somehow justified. 

And I think that’s something that we can’t lose sight of as we’re sort of analyzing what’s happening in these attacks. 

AUDIE CORNISH: You were taking some notes, yeah. 

PETER BERGEN: Yeah, well, I mean, as a factual matter, I just looked at, the four cases we’ve been talking about the last two weeks, none of them involved immigrants, and they all involved U.S. citizens, and in fact one of the perpetrators was a U.S. Army military veteran. 

So, it’s going to be hard to say if this is a sort of immigration problem, and in fact almost all these attacks in the United States are conducted by American citizens or American legal residents. 

The last time there was a foreigner who came in and attacked in the United States was in 2019 in Pensacola, Florida, and he was a Saudi military officer. 

So, you know, there’s been a lot of rhetoric about this. Most of it poorly informed. Also, by the way, you can’t stop the Internet. The Internet is what’s radicalizing people. 

So calls for additional immigration constraints, I don’t think, we may hear them, but as a practical matter when it comes to terrorism, it’s not going to have any real effect.