2012 Washington Update Luncheon with U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions

U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions speaks at the 2012 Washington Update Luncheon Wed., Oct. 24 at the Von Braun Center. (Sarah Cole/al.com)

The Subcommittee on Immigration and Natural Interest has identified at least 26 foreign-born individuals inside the U.S. who have either been charged with or convicted of terrorism in the last year with even more examples going back several years, chairman Jeff Sessions said.

The list is frightening.

It includes Yemeni, Afghani and Iraqi citizens who were in the U.S. but tried to leave to fight with ISIS. There are two Pakistani immigrants who had received American citizenship but are now in prison for plotting to detonate a bomb in New York City. There's an immigrant brought to the U.S. at a young age that later carried out the attacks that killed five service members in Chattanooga.

"Our track record on screening is very poor," Sessions said.

The list of individuals who were in the U.S. but now face charges related to terror groups or plans to attack the U.S. was released by Sessions Monday after he wrote a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee asking them to use funding limits to stop President Obama's plans to bring 85,000 additional immigrants, including 10,000 from Syria, into the U.S. in the coming year.

The plan has come under increased scrutiny in the wake of Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris. One of the suspects in the attacks was reportedly a Syrian immigrant living in France. Governors of several states, including Alabama, have said they will not accept Syrian refugees.

Sessions said the terrorist attacks highlight the need for greater scrutiny of those coming into the U.S.

"The barbaric attacks in Paris - an assault on civilization itself - add immense new urgency," Sessions said.

Vetting process questioned

Sessions said U.S. officials have no access to Syrian government data to vet refugees and no capacity to predict whether those seeking refuge are likely to join militant groups. As proof of that, the Immigration Subcommittee, which Sessions chairs, provided a partial list of apprehended foreign-born terrorists or terror suspects since 2013:

A Kazakhstani immigrant with lawful permanent resident status allegedly

An immigrant from Saudi Arabia, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship,

A Uzbek man in Brooklyn encouraged other Uzbeki nationals to wage jihad on behalf of ISIS, and

The Boston Bombers, who killed three and injured more than 250, were

A Moroccan national who came to the U.S. on a student visa was arrested for

6 Members of Minnesota's Somali-American refugee community have recently been charged with trying to join ISIS. The Washington Times reported that "the effort [to resettle large groups of Somali refugees in Minnesota] is having the unintended consequence of creating an enclave of immigrants with high unemployment that is both

An Uzbek refugee living in Idaho was arrested and charged with providing support to a terrorist organization, in the form of

An American citizen whose family is from Syria was sentenced to up to five years in a juvenile prison for plotting to

An immigrant from Syria, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was accused by federal prosecutors of planning to "

A college student and Somali immigrant, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, attempted to

An immigrant from Afghanistan, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, and a legal permanent resident from the Philippines, were convicted for "

An Iraqi immigrant, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was arrested for

Two immigrants from Pakistan, who later applied for and received U.S citizenship, were sentenced to decades-long prison sentences for

An immigrant from Yemen, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was arrested for

An immigrant brought here by his family from Kuwait at a young age, and who was later

Sessions said these incidents are just a few of those identified by his committee. They should serve as a warning against any plan for relocation of immigrants, especially those from Syria, he added.

"As the former head of the (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) union warned in a public statement more than a year ago: "as we know from the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, from the Boston Bombing, from the recent plot to bomb a school and courthouse in Connecticut, and many other lesser-known terror incidents, we are letting terrorists into the United States right through our front door."