President Donald Trump is raising alarms about potential Iranian “sleeper cells” operating across North America, warning that authorities are closely monitoring networks tied to Iran that may have entered the United States in recent years.
Speaking Wednesday, Trump said U.S. officials are already aware of many of the individuals linked to these networks. When asked about the issue, he made it clear that the problem didn’t happen overnight.
“I have been briefed, and a lot of people came in through Biden with his stupid open border,” Trump said in response to a question from Fox News reporter Peter Doocy. “But we know where most of them are. We’ve got our eye on all of them.”
While the administration continues monitoring the situation in the United States, concerns are also growing just across the border in Canada, where opposition lawmakers say their government has allowed individuals connected to Tehran’s regime to remain in the country for years.
Senior members of Canada’s Conservative Party—including Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman, immigration shadow minister Michelle Rempel, and Québec lieutenant Pierre Paul-Hus—are now demanding immediate action from the Liberal government in Ottawa.
In a statement, the lawmakers said the government has known for years that hundreds of officials tied to Iran’s regime have been present in Canada. According to their remarks, visas for 239 individuals connected to the regime have been canceled—but only one person has actually been deported so far. Legal challenges, asylum claims, the lack of direct flights to Iran, and privacy rules have reportedly slowed enforcement.
Critics say the issue is far from new. Iranian activist Maryam Shariatmadari, known for her role in the “Girls of Revolution Street” protests against Iran’s mandatory hijab laws, fled Iran after imprisonment and now lives in exile in Canada. She told Fox News Digital that Iranians have long warned about the presence of regime-linked individuals living comfortably abroad.
According to Shariatmadari, some of these individuals and their families have been able to build public reputations in Canada despite their alleged ties to controversial figures connected to Iran’s government.
Exiled Iranian journalist Mehdi Ghadimi, who also lives in Canada, said individuals tied to the regime often enter Western countries through multiple pathways. Some arrive as students, academics, or immigrants but maintain connections to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps through family ties or ideological links.
Others, he said, enter through financial channels.
Former members of Iran’s state institutions or security networks sometimes move abroad as private investors, bringing large sums of money with them. Ghadimi noted that transferring millions of dollars out of Iran is extremely difficult without approval from powerful security bodies within the Islamic Republic.
The controversy has intensified following the disappearance of Iranian dissident Masood Masjoody earlier this year in Burnaby, British Columbia. Investigators from Canada’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team say evidence suggests he was likely the victim of murder, though suspects have not been publicly identified and the investigation remains ongoing.
The case has raised fresh concerns within Canada’s Iranian diaspora, many of whom say Tehran has a long history of monitoring, intimidating, and targeting critics living abroad.
Canadian Conservatives argue that weaknesses in immigration enforcement have allowed individuals connected to Iran’s regime to remain in the country despite visa bans and sanctions imposed by Ottawa. They are now calling on the government to enforce deportation orders, disrupt financial networks tied to Tehran, and establish a long-delayed foreign influence registry designed to expose agents working on behalf of foreign governments.
Their message to the government was clear: action is needed now.
“The Liberals can take action against the Iranian regime today, within our own borders,” the lawmakers said in their statement. “Too much is at stake.”
And as concerns about foreign influence and national security continue to grow across North America, the focus now turns to whether leaders will act decisively to confront the threat—and ensure that those working against Western democracies are no longer able to hide in plain sight. ??
