Obama's DHS secretary sounds alarm after 16 Iranian nationals arrested in 48 hours

Former Obama-era DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson joins 'Fox & Friends' to discuss his
concern surrounding the arrest of Iranian nationals inside the U.S. and his reaction
to a California official demanding gangs stand up to ICE.


OTTAWA, Canada 

While Iran’s retaliatory military attacks against Israel have ended, the Canadian government
department responsible for national security is monitoring "the residual impact of the evolving
situation in the Middle East," according to a spokesperson for Public Safety Canada.

"Canada’s law enforcement agencies remain on alert," Noémie Allard said in a statement provided
to Fox News Digital in which she indicated that the current national terrorism threat level in
Canada is "medium, meaning that a violent extremist attack is a realistic possibility at this time."

Meanwhile, Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian justice minister and attorney general and human-rights
advocate who has been targeted by the Iranian regime told Fox News Digital in an interview that
the Islamic Republic is intensifying its campaign of "massive domestic oppression" against its
opponents at home and could embark on "transnational repression" against its opponents abroad.




Iranian regime opponents in Toronto, Canada held a pro-Israel rally following the terror group
Hamas attacking the Jewish state. (Courtesy of Emily Schafer)


A longtime critic of the Iranian clerical regime, Cotler has been under round-the-clock Royal Canadian
Mounted Police protection since 2023 when Canadian intelligence officials identified a death threat
against him from Iran.

"Iranian diaspora groups, human rights defenders, journalists, Jews and Israelis have all become
potential targets," Cotler told Fox News Digital in an interview. "This is a moment in which we
need to be on alert."

He noted that this week, three political prisoners were executed in Iran over charges of espionage
for Israel, and during the 12-day war with Israel, another 700 Iranians were arrested under allegations
that they collaborated with Israel.

Montreal-born Cotler, an 85-year-old international human rights lawyer who established the
Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights 10 years ago, is trying to secure the release of
Ahmadreza Djalali – a Swedish Iranian physician accused of being an Israeli spy, who had been
imprisoned for nine years at Iran’s notorious Evin Prison in Tehran until this week when he was
moved to an undisclosed location. He is facing what Cotler described as
"an imminent threat of execution."




FILE- Members of the Iranian revolutionary guard march during a parade.
The IRGC is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department.
A large part of its work is to covertly operate outside of Iran. (Reuters.) (Reuters)



He fears that sleeper cells have been activated in Canada to target those who oppose the Iranian regime
and is urging the Canadian government to prioritize the establishment of an independent agency to
address external threats of repression and assassination from such rogue countries as Iran, China and Russia.

Cotler also noted that Iranian-born Canadian human rights lawyer Kaveh Shahrooz, who he said has also
been targeted by the Iranian regime, believes the number of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
agents operating in Canada are "underrepresented" and "that the threat is greater than we appreciate."

Fox News Digital was unable to reach Shahrooz for further comment.

Canada should also follow the lead of the U.S. Justice Department and prosecute those who collaborate
with Iranian-led sleeper cells, said Cotler, who in 2008 called for the IRGC to be listed as a terrorist entity –
a designation that Canada finally adopted in 2024.

Last October, the Justice Department formally accused Ruhollah Bazghandi, a senior IRGC official,
of involvement in a 2022 plot to kill Iranian American dissident Masih Alinejad – a friend of Cotler’s –
in New York City.




A sign marking the international border between the United States and Canada is pictured
at Peace Arch Historical State Park in Blaine, Washington, on March 5, 2025. 
(Photo by Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images)



During a virtual news conference from the NATO summit at The Hague on Tuesday, Canadian Foreign
Affairs Minister Anita Anand said that her government is "very concerned about [both] foreign interference,
including the types that were highlighted by" Cotler and "about the Iranian regime," which is why she said
that Canada declared it to be a "terrorist entity" in 2022 and has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since 2012.

Anand also said that she had a call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi last Saturday before
the U.S. airstrikes against Iran, during which she reaffirmed Canada’s continuing desire to seek accountability
from the Islamic Republic for the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 in 2020, which
resulted in the deaths of 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.

Cotler said that the victims’ families in both Iran and Canada have been
"harassed and threatened" since the air tragedy.






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