Jordanian National Arrested in Texas, Police Say He Was Planning a Big Attack

By Rachel M. Emmanuel,

Here’s another example of how our lax immigration policies are putting American lives in danger.

According to CBS News, federal authorities in Houston arrested a 20-year-old Jordanian national who was allegedly plotting to attack Jews.

Sohaib Abuayyash was taken into custody on Oct. 19 and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. Court documents revealed that Abuayyash had “trained with weapons to possibly commit an attack.”

According to a federal judge’s detention order, Abuayyash had made remarks about “martyrdom” and “referenced an event in Houston for members of a particular religious group.” A law enforcement source told CNN that Abuayyash was planning to attack a Jewish gathering.

The judge also mentioned that Abuayyash had accessed content from “radical organizations” online, including instructions on constructing bombs.

An affidavit indicated that Abuayyash had applied for asylum in the U.S. after his visa expired in 2019. While he was authorized to work in the U.S. until August 2025, he was not allowed to possess or use firearms.

This allowed authorities to swiftly take Abuayyash into custody on the gun charge and have him detained without bail while they continue their investigation, with the possibility of bringing further charges at a later time.

Jordanian national arrested in Houston allegedly planned attack on Jews https://t.co/fmCU8dK072 pic.twitter.com/Da1uCZrTfT

— New York Post (@nypost) November 3, 2023

FBI Director Christopher Wray referred to Abuayyash during testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Tuesday.

Wray said the FBI is concerned that “violent extremists” will be inspired by the fighting in the Middle East to carry out attacks against Americans.

“That includes … domestic violent extremists targeting Jewish or Muslim communities. We’ve already seen that with the individual we arrested last week in Houston who’d been studying how to build bombs and posted online about his support for killing Jews,” he said.

“The reality is that the terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole other level,” Wray had warned earlier.

Giving credit where credit is due — the FBI did a great job with this one — doesn’t change the fact that with the southern border open, our nation is more vulnerable now than it has been in a very long time.

We have our fingers in two wars and an open invitation to our enemies to simply walk through our doors, unvetted. The result is a disaster waiting to happen.

Jewish people are especially at risk right now.

As Wray noted on Tuesday, “the Jewish community is uniquely targeted by pretty much every terrorist organization across the spectrum.”

“When you look at a group that makes up 2.4 percent, roughly, of the American population, it should be jarring to everyone that that same population accounts for something like 60 percent of all religious-based hate crimes,” Wray said.

Thank goodness Abuayyash was not able to add to that statistic in Houston.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.