Iranian sleeper cells may be hiding 'in plain sight' waiting to target rural US areas, terrorism expert warns

A counterterrorism expert says that Iranian sleeper cells may be hiding in plain sight waiting to strike rural areas in America Following strikes by the U S military on several Iranian nuclear sites on June the Department of Homeland Protection DHS issued a National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin stating there's a heightened hazard for Iranian-backed or domestic terrorism The likelihood of violent extremists in the Homeland independently mobilizing to violence in response to the conflict would likely increase if Iranian leadership issued a religious ruling calling for retaliatory violence against targets in the Homeland stated the bulletin Iran also has a long-standing commitment to target US Leadership personnel it views as responsible for the death of an Iranian military commander killed in January Jonathan Gilliam former FBI special agent who has worked on terrorism task forces recounted Fox News Digital that these terror cells might be in our backyard COLLEGE CAMPUSES COULD BE GROUND ZERO FOR IRANIAN SLEEPER CELLS PLOTTING TO HARM AMERICANS EXPERTS WARN Where these sleeper cells may be is in plain sight Gilliam noted And that's the real terrifying part of this is that putting people in place as we've seen over the past four years everyone's scrambling because certain amounts of people could come in here and get in here Gilliam revealed the Biden administration's margin policies enabled Iranian illegal immigrants to come into the U S with impunity creating the conditions for sleeper cells to exist They could even go to the margin and say they want to seek asylum and the Biden administration instead of putting them into DHS housing or ICE housing and holding them there so they could have their first appearance To be vetted and whether or not they get asylum he stated of Iranian illegal immigrants OBAMA'S FORMER DHS SECRETARY SOUNDS ALARM ON IRANIAN SLEEPER CELLS CALLS IT CONCERN OF 'HIGHEST MAGNITUDE'Following the U S attack on Iran's nuclear facilities U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE has tamped up enforcement efforts targeted at Iranian illegal immigrants Since June over Iranian nationals have been arrested multiple federal sources explained Fox News adding that Iranians are in ICE custody Gilliam stated that these sleeper cells could be targeting America's rural areas since they're not well protected There is a possibility that sleeper cells could target more rural states instead of a large city In fact considering the evolution of attacks by fundamental Islamic attackers we ve seen in Israel on October th and in India this year it is workable that a similar attack could happen at a rural outdoor entertainment venue or populated vacation spot Gilliam stated Fox News' Bill Melugin contributed to this account