IS-linked smuggler reportedly helped migrants enter U.S. from Mexico

The FBI is investigating more than a dozen Uzbek nationals who were allowed to enter the United States, after seeking asylum at the southern border with Mexico earlier this year. 

The investigation was triggered when U.S. intelligence discovered that the migrants had traveled with the help of a smuggler with ties to the Islamic State (IS), according to several U.S. officials, CNN reported.

While the FBI says no specific IS plot has been identified, authorities are still working to "identify and assess" all individuals who entered the U.S., according to a statement by National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.

Although there is no evidence of a plot at this stage, an urgent classified intelligence report has been distributed to key members of U.S. President Joe Biden's cabinet. 

For some counter-terrorism officials, it shows that the U.S. is deeply vulnerable to the possibility that terrorists could sneak across the southern border, hiding among the influx of migrants entering the country in search of asylum. 

The information has also prompted a series of urgent meetings between senior national security and administration officials. At the beginning of the year, a cohort of migrants from Uzbekistan applied for asylum, while the number of asylum seekers traveling to the U.S. from Central Asia in recent years has risen dramatically.