President Trump is correct to reinstate the travel ban on nations like Iran. It’s a necessary step to safeguard national security. However, the greatest threat from Tehran isn’t simply attempting entry — it is already entrenched within our borders.

Sympathizers of the Islamic Republic have established footholds in the United States, holding green cards, naturalized citizenship, or residing under visas granted through academia, government-funded programs, or employment in critical sectors. While most Iranian-Americans actively oppose the regime, a concerning minority continue promoting Tehran’s dangerous agenda — some openly, others clandestinely.

Over the past two decades — including during the Obama-era diplomatic thaw with Tehran — many Iranian nationals, including some with regime-linked backgrounds, obtained legal residency or advanced academic placements in the U.S. While most pose no threat, this period coincided with a wave of regime-aligned individuals quietly embedding into American institutions under minimal scrutiny.

These assertions aren’t speculative — they are substantiated by documented public records.

Recent intelligence reports indicate that the Islamic Republic of Iran has gone far beyond covert propaganda. Tehran has been linked to a plot to assassinate President Trump and has actively funded and promoted antisemitic agitation across the U.S. — including pro-Hamas encampments on university campuses and coordinated protests following October 7. At recent riots in cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, individuals have been seen wearing Hamas and other Islamic terrorist group headbands while waving the Mexican flag — a manufactured coalition of chaos that Tehran helps engineer. These developments are not spontaneous. They reflect a deliberate, externally supported campaign to destabilize American cities, stoke antisemitism, and erode democratic norms.

In 20241, Iranian regime-aligned elections were held on U.S. soil, with polling sites reportedly coordinated by pro-regime organizations embedded in American communities. While such activity is typically framed as cultural engagement, it represented an organized effort by a hostile foreign regime to normalize its legitimacy abroad. Participation and promotion of such events by green card holders and dual citizens raise questions about foreign influence that deserve closer examination — not dismissal.

Moreover, the situation intensifies when considering documented overlaps between participants in these regime-linked elections and anti-Israel or pro-Hamas activities across America. National security reporting, including coverage by Dexter Van Zile, identified individuals in Massachusetts who took part in the elections and were later seen at pro-Hamas demonstrations — a group the U.S. classifies as a terrorist organization. This alignment is unlikely to be accidental; it points to a strategic nexus of anti-American propaganda shaped or inspired by Tehran.

Alarmingly, this infiltration extends beyond propaganda. In 2024, a Massachusetts-based engineer holding U.S. permanent residency was federally indicted for illegally exporting drone components to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force — a designated terrorist entity. Those parts were directly implicated in lethal attacks against American military personnel overseas. Notably, this individual maintained active ties with the Omid Islamic Center, a Shi’a congregation in the greater Boston area — a congregation previously reported to have hosted organizers of Iran’s U.S.-based regime elections. These connections reinforce a broader pattern of deliberate influence networks operating on U.S. soil.

Yet, these publicly known cases represent only a fraction of the potential threat.

Concerns are rising among U.S. intelligence and national security professionals regarding a subset of Iranian nationals or dual citizens occupying sensitive roles in critical American industries. These positions often involve access to intellectual property, infrastructure systems, or federally funded research. While most Iranian-Americans are loyal contributors to U.S. progress, a smaller group continues to travel frequently to Iran, raising red flags given Tehran’s well-documented practice of coercing travelers — including asylum seekers — into espionage by threatening their families. These tactics pose serious counterintelligence risks and may be used to collect intelligence or monitor dissident communities within the United States.

If the travel ban genuinely aims to fortify U.S. security, it must be complemented by rigorous internal review. DHS, State Department, and USCIS must urgently reassess past approvals granted to Iranian nationals for indicators of regime affiliation, including:

Individuals with dual nationality who actively propagate Tehran’s anti-American rhetoric, or who regularly return to Iran after asylum claims, must face immediate scrutiny, visa re-evaluation, and potential revocation.

This policy isn’t about collective punishment or discrimination — it’s purely about national security. America holds a clear right and fundamental responsibility to ensure those benefiting from its protection are not covertly serving a hostile, terrorist-sponsoring regime. Each visa, security clearance, and federal grant should withstand thorough verification when national security is demonstrably at stake.

Critics will invariably label this as xenophobic, but nothing could be further from reality. This isn’t about ethnicity or nationality; it’s about allegiance and ideology. Indeed, millions of Iranian-Americans stand firmly against Tehran’s regime, many actively advocating for democracy in Iran. Their voices deserve amplification. Protecting our society from embedded sympathizers of an oppressive regime protects the genuine opposition and strengthens U.S. national security.

For decades, Tehran has adeptly exploited America’s open society — mosques, student groups, cultural centers — to embed its agents. This soft-power infiltration has succeeded primarily because our security policies failed to adapt accordingly.

President Trump’s renewed travel ban sets a clear, necessary boundary. Now, the boundary must extend inward, addressing those already here. The U.S. government’s next logical steps must include immediate investigation, rigorous vetting, and decisive action against those who serve the Islamic Republic—regardless of residency or citizenship status.

America’s right and obligation to self-defense includes countering subversive threats posed by the agents of a regime openly committed to America’s destruction. Defending our homeland means identifying and removing those who embed themselves in our institutions to undermine our democracy and security from within.

* * *

Dr. Aidin Panahi is an Iranian-American research professor, energy expert, and political activist. He is the cofounder of the “From Boston to Iran” initiative and his analyses on security and policy issues have appeared in outlets including The Jerusalem Post, Washington Times, the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune, Middle East Forum, Homeland Security Today, and Visegrád24. X: @Aidin_FreeIran

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

When riots broke out in Los Angeles in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, the police response was hamstrung by politics, according to one California sheriff.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco says the violence and destruction that erupted in Los Angeles over the weekend would never have happened in his county.

“We know how to stop these,” Bianco said in an interview with The Daily Wire.

“I’m not going to criticize other law enforcement leaders, but it was not handled correctly,” he said. “I do not believe that the leaders of law enforcement were not impacted by politics because I know they know how to end this. I know they know how to make it go away, and it was not done.”

Violent protesters have spent the past five days causing chaos in Los Angeles, assaulting law enforcement, destroying property, and setting cars on fire as they attempt to prevent ICE agents from doing their jobs and arresting criminal illegal aliens.

“I will tell you this, that would never happen in Riverside County because there would never be a mayor standing in front of a news camera blaming law enforcement for anything or encouraging people to come down and protest while riots were happening while the police chief is standing right next to her. That would never, ever happen here,” Bianco said. “This is happening in Los Angeles County and possibly other places because it’s political. It’s because of the people making the decisions.”

In 2020, Bianco was able to get Black Lives Matter riots under control quickly in Riverside, he said.

“They should have done the exact same thing this time, but instead they fell back into the same political black hole that Los Angeles always falls into, and they don’t prosecute, they don’t arrest, and they just allow this to happen,” he said.

Bianco is running as a Republican in California’s gubernatorial election next year, aiming to oust liberal Governor Gavin Newsom. He blamed Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for the riots, saying they should not go on television and “spew political rhetoric.”

During a Wednesday press conference, Bass said the riots were “provoked by the White House” and suggested Los Angeles is “part of a national experiment to determine how far the federal government can go.”

“You know what they should be doing? Both of them should be sitting on their couch watching their TV from the safety of their own home,” Bianco said. “All they are doing is making it worse, and they’re purposely doing it.”

“They do not like law enforcement,” Bianco said. “They enjoy criminal behavior because it creates an environment they can politically take control of and act like they’re the heroes for saving us, when the reality is they created it.”

“They prevented law enforcement from doing anything, it gets completely out of hand, and then they jump up and down and say, oh, now we’re going to arrest all these bad actors and this needs to stop,” he said. “They should have done that four days ago, five days ago, and neither one of them did because they make this 100% political. They use it for a political tool, and it’s an absolute disgrace.”

“Get out of the way of their chiefs of police and their sheriff’s offices and let them maintain peace. That is what we do. We are the experts doing it,” the sheriff said.

Bianco emphasized that when rioters are allowed to film themselves destroying property and post it on social media for “likes and clicks” with no consequences, it encourages more bad actors to go to that area.

“If you are going to enable criminal activity, it’s just going to grow and grow and grow, and we watched that happen for the first three days, four days of these riots and nothing was happening. There was no arrests,” he said. “There was no consequence for any of these people.”

Often, the sheriff said, he has to send his own officers to Los Angeles when riots there go south. Bianco is already responsible for the safety of 2.4 million people in Riverside County, the 10th largest county in the country, which sits just east of Los Angeles.

“I’m not happy. I mean, I will always do it. I have to protect law enforcement. I have to help protect Los Angeles County, but we should have done this five days ago, not yesterday,” Bianco said.

Bianco also told The Daily Wire he’s heard cops on the line express frustration that their hands are tied during riots.

“The vast majority of the cops that are on the line want to end the rioting,” Bianco said. “They want to arrest the people that are throwing things at them. They want to arrest the people that are trying to hurt them, vandalize property, start fires, and do all those things.”

However, until officers get the word from leadership, they “just have to sit there and be the victims of assaults with a deadly weapon,” the sheriff said.

The solution, Bianco said, is an “overwhelming show of force from law enforcement and a zero tolerance for criminal activity, and then you can truly have a legitimate protest instead of what we have currently, which is just riots.”

“When the leaders prevent it strictly for politics, which that’s all this is, then it creates a bad environment with very, very low morale when leaders don’t stick up for their troops,” the sheriff said.

Bianco also noted that while police chiefs can be “fired at any moment if they don’t do what the politicians say,” California sheriffs are elected.

“There is not one politician that could affect how I handled my riots,” he said.

President Donald Trump deployed 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to Los Angeles to help local law enforcement get the situation under control. The troops are being used to secure streets and perimeters in areas where ICE is carrying out enforcement actions, according to U.S. officials.

Democrats were apoplectic at the announcement that approximately 700 Marines were headed to Los Angeles, and Newsom filed an emergency motion to block what he called an “unlawful militarization” of the city.

“They know that the National Guard and the Marines will never be used against citizens. It is against the law,” Bianco said. “All of these ignorant politicians and disingenuous politicians that are trying to make the general public think that the military is being used against citizens is disgusting because it is an absolute, flat-out lie.”

“They blamed everything on the president who tried to come in and save everybody after,” he said. “They want us to forget the timeline.”