A woman accused of sending Bitcoin digital currency to send thousands of dollars to Islamic State (ISIS) fighters was able to the enter the U.S. as a foreign relative of a newly naturalized immigrant through the process known as “chain migration.”
Under chain migration, newly naturalized immigrants to the U.S. can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the country with them. Chain migration, denounced repeatedly by President Trump, has imported more than nine million foreign relatives of immigrants to the U.S. since 2005, Breitbart News reported.
Zoobia Shahnaz, a 27-year-old chain migrant from Pakistan, was arrested in July at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City when she attempted to flee the U.S. for Syria after she allegedly defrauded a bank of a $22,500 loan and then allegedly sent $62,000 in Bitcoin to ISIS fighters.
According to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tyler Houlton, Shahnaz was only able to enter the U.S. and eventually become a citizen, despite her alleged sympathy for ISIS, due to chain migration.