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 They are the latest in a series of similar cases in a U.S.
campaign against extremism. Neither man was charged with plotting an
attack on the United States. One man was charged with supporting the
Islamic State militant group overseas and both were charged with
providing false information about their ties to what were described
as international terrorist groups.
There have been more than 75 publicized arrests of U.S. residents
who have allegedly become radicalized by Muslim militants since
2014.
The men, arrested in Sacramento and Houston, were not involved in a
single plot, but they may have been in contact with each other, a
source familiar with the two cases said.
Both men are Palestinians who were born in Iraq. The man arrested in
Houston, Omar Faraj Saeed Al-Hardan, entered the United States as an
Iraqi refugee in November 2009, according to a court document.
 In Sacramento, the U.S. Department of Justice said Aws Mohammed
Younis Al-Jayab, 23, came to the United States in 2012 as a refugee
from Syria.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, a Tea Party Republican, cited
the arrest in Houston as a reason why Texas has been seeking to
block the resettlement of Syrian refugees.
“This is exactly what we have repeatedly told the Obama
administration could happen and why we do not want refugees coming
to Texas. There are serious questions about who these people really
are, as evidenced by today's events," Patrick said in a statement.
Republican leaders have been calling on President Barack Obama, a
Democrat, to move with caution in allowing refugees from Syria to
resettle in the United States.
Obama said last year that the United States would take in 10,000
Syrian refugees by Oct. 1, 2016, prompting vows of defiance from
more than 30 governors who warned of risks to national security.
Most of the 75 cases for activity inspired by Islamic State involve
young men allegedly seeking to support the militant group by
traveling to fight with them in Syria or helping others join Islamic
State abroad.
The Justice Department "will continue to hold accountable those who
seek to join or aid the cause of terrorism, whether at home or
abroad," Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said in a statement.
Al-Hardan was charged with providing material support to the Islamic
State militant group and for making false statements about ties to
the group when seeking U.S. naturalization, according to an
indictment in federal court in Houston unsealed on Thursday.
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In California, Al-Jayab was arrested on Thursday on a federal charge
of making a false statement involving international terrorism, the
U.S. Department of Justice said.
The U.S. attorney for Sacramento, Benjamin Wagner, said in a
statement there were no indications Al-Jayab had planned any attacks
in the United States.
“While he represented a potential safety threat, there is no
indication that he planned any acts of terrorism in this country,"
Wagner said.
Wagner's spokeswoman, Lauren Horwood, said: "There is no current
threat to public safety associated with this arrest."
In a criminal complaint, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said
Al-Jayab lied about traveling back to Syria and about posting on
social media his support for what the government said were terrorist
groups.
"O God, grant us martyrdom for your sake while engaged in fighting
and not retreating; a martyrdom that would make you satisfied with
us," the FBI said Al-Jayab wrote to someone. The court filing did
not name the individual, but it indicated the person lives in Texas,
where Al-Hardan was arrested.
The Justice Department said that the year after Al-Jayab came to the
United States, he went overseas, and later told officials that he
had gone to Turkey to visit family.
The complaint includes numerous social media postings and other
communications in which Al-Jayab discussed jihad as well as using
assault rifles and training with militants. He also said he was in
Syria.
Al-Jayab is scheduled to appear in federal court in Sacramento on
Friday, Horwood said.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein and Julia Edwards; Additional
reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing by Jon
Herskovitz; Editing by Toni Reinhold, Kevin Drawbaugh and Leslie
Adler)
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