Two men from Anaheim were in federal custody Friday on suspicion of supporting the terrorist group ISIS.

Federal prosecutors say Nader Salem Elhuzayel and Muhanad Badawi, both 24, discussed terrorist ideas over Twitter and Facebook and planned to join Islamic State forces overseas. They could face charges that would keep them in prison for up to 15 years if convicted.

Terror experts who track militant groups recruiting in the United States said Friday that there has been a dramatic increase this year in the number of Americans arrested trying to join the Islamic State.

That uptick constitutes “a distinct, yet evolving national security threat,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.

In all, four people from Orange County – all men in their early 20s – have been arrested in the past two years on suspicion of trying to support terrorist activities.

Elhuzayel and Badawi were arrested Thursday evening by the Orange County Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes officials from the FBI, Anaheim Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Elhuzayel said goodbye to his parents Thursday night at Los Angeles International Airport, picked up a one-way ticket and was about to board a plane heading to Turkey when FBI agents took him into custody, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.

The FBI said Elhuzayel admitted after his arrest that he was headed overseas to join ISIS terrorists, according to the complaint.

Meanwhile, FBI agents in Anaheim arrested his friend and alleged fellow terrorist supporter Badawi. Details of Badawi’s arrest were not released.

Elhuzayel’s parents, Palestinian immigrants Salem and Falak Elhuzayel, said their son is not a terrorist or sympathetic to terrorist ideals.

They said he was flying to Israel on Thursday, on a flight with a layover in Istanbul, to visit his aunts and cousins.

When his parents returned from dropping off Nader Elhuzayel at the airport, they stopped for dinner before returning to find FBI and SWAT officials inside their room at the Crystal Inn Motel in Anaheim.

The family, including Nader Elhuzayel’s 28-year-old autistic brother, has lived in motels since 2013, when the parents were evicted from their Anaheim home.

“I think they’re looking for a victim and Nader is an easy (target),” Salem Elhuzayel said Friday morning.

“He’s an innocent human being who went to visit family to stay one or two months, then come back.”

Federal authorities describe Nader Elhuzayel and Badawi as eager, would-be terrorists.

THREATS ONLINE

The two men “used social media to discuss (ISIS) and terrorist attacks, expressed a desire to die as martyrs and made arrangements for Nader Elhuzayel to leave the United States to join (ISIS),” according to the complaint.

Beginning in 2014, Badawi allegedly began posting pro-ISIS messages on Twitter under several usernames. One alleged message was “Inshallah (God willing) soon the Islamic State will take over Baghdad …”

Nader Elhuzayel, who authorities said also used several names on Twitter, allegedly spread similar messages. He also said to Badawi that he “wanted to die in the battlefield; he wanted to die a (martyr),” according to the complaint.

“It’s nonsensical talk,” Salem Elhuzayel said regarding his son’s alleged tweets. “This is not our son. Somebody must be speaking on his behalf.”

But Nader Elhuzayel allegedly repeatedly discussed with Badawi his desire to leave the country and join ISIS. And both men allegedly denounced local Muslim leaders because they did not support the Islamic State.

On May 3, Nader Elhuzayel allegedly told Badawi in a recorded conversation, “May we be united in the Islamic State.” Badawi, according to the complaint, admitted to using his phone to buy Nader Elhuzayel’s plane ticket while the men sat in his car May 7.

“All the world is upside down,” Salem Elhuzayel said. “I hope justice will prevail.”

UNCLEAR ORIGINS

The Elhuzayel family had fallen on hard times.

“(Nader) was not very happy with the situation,” his mother said outside the motel while holding her Chihuahua-mix dog named Rocky. “He was disgusted with what was going on.”

About six months ago, Nader Elhuzayel began worshipping at the nearby West Coast Islamic Society in Anaheim. Officials at the mosque would not comment on the arrests, though one member said Badawi and Nader Elhuzayel, who both attended the mosque, did not associate with others.

“The individuals prayed and left,” Sammy Ahmed said following Friday prayers at the mosque. “They didn’t hang out.”

While apparently posting the ISIS-supporting messages, Nader Elhuzayel also began using iPhone apps to learn Arabic and use that skill to read the Quran in its original language.

He also used online apps to find romance.

Registered on the popular dating website OkCupid, he advertised himself as a straight man searching for friends and love of a younger woman, ages 18-24, in the United States, according to his profile.

He has not been on the website since March, the same month the FBI said he established an online relationship with a woman in Palestine.

Nader Elhuzayel and a mysterious woman, who also supports ISIS through social media, talked daily and planned to get married and have children, according to the complaint.

Nader Elhuzayel pleaded guilty in February 2014 to a misdemeanor, entering a closed property, and spent six days in jail. He was sentenced to three years of probation, according to Orange County court records.

He had finished a medical billing program at American Career College and aspired to get a bachelor’s degree in agriculture. He worked occasionally as a landscaper.

Badawi and Nader Elhuzayel met about three years ago while the latter attended general education courses at Cypress College, according to Falak Elhuzayel, who added that she was close to her son.

“(Badawi) seemed to be a nice and polite kid,” Falak Elhuzayel said.

An Orange County defense attorney appointed by the federal court to represent Badawi at Friday’s proceeding in the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana said Badawi immigrated to the United States from Sudan when he was about 16 and has no previous criminal record.

“He’s obviously very scared at what he’s facing; he’s got a long road ahead of him,” said Badawi’s attorney, Kate Corrigan.

Corrigan said Badawi is studying engineering at Fullerton College and described his family as well-educated.

Badawi, a clean-cut man with short facial hair, was deemed a flight risk and ordered to remain in custody without bail during his brief court appearance. A detention hearing for Nader Elhuzayel was continued to Wednesday to give him time to meet with a federal public defender.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for June 5.

GROWING CONCERN

A report issued earlier this week by the Anti-Defamation League cited 36 domestic arrests of individuals suspected of supporting terrorists so far in 2015. That figure does not include two men shot and killed earlier this month after opening fire at an event in Texas showcasing controversial cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad.

The number of terror arrests in the United States this year is approaching the combined total of each of the past two years, 26 in 2014 and 22 in 2013, according to the May 20 ADL report.

The 2015 arrests have mostly involved individuals attempting to join ISIS, said Oren Segal, director of the ADL’s New York-based Center on Extremism.

Segal said the spike might be due to a combination of more effective recruiting online and through social media by ISIS and heightened policing by law enforcement.

The two Anaheim men appear to fit “an emerging pattern” in terrorist recruitment of mostly young adult males “who descend into radicalism as they assert their independence and form adult identities,” said Levin, the Cal State San Bernardino professor who is a nationally recognized expert in monitoring terrorism.

Segal, of the ADL, said the threat represented by suspected terrorist supporters and wannabes is serious, despite a seeming lack of sophistication.

“These are not your grizzled veterans that are being attracted to this. And ISIS knows that. They are trying to recruit younger people who may not be as savvy. Some get caught. But what ISIS is hoping for is some of these people will get through.”

Increasingly, that threat looks like the kid next door.

“These are Americans in any sort of way you want to count that – culturally or born here,” Segal said of the individuals cited in the ADL report, and now Nader Elhuzayel and Badawi.

“These are American kids. They look like the average American kid. They’ve grown up like the average American kid. And that means sometimes in happy families and sometimes in those that are dysfunctional,” Segal added.

Several men from the region have been arrested in similar probes.

Adam Dandach of Orange was arrested by FBI agents July 2 at John Wayne Airport as he tried to board a flight to Turkey. Authorities said he was attempting to travel to Syria to join ISIS. He has pleaded not guilty.

In 2013, Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen, 24, of Garden Grove, accused of attempting to support al-Qaida fighters in Pakistan, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.

In February, two men from Pomona and Ontario were sentenced to 25 years in federal prison after plotting to travel to Afghanistan to join al-Qaida and kill Americans.

Members of Orange County’s Islamic community expressed concern about the arrests of Nader Elhuzayel and Badawi.

The Los Angeles Area Council on American Islamic Relations issued a statement Friday reiterating the organization’s longstanding rejection of extremism.

“It is very important to allow the legal process to take its course and wait for the facts to emerge,” said Hussam Ayloush, the organization’s executive director. “As with all cases, those charged are presumed innocent until convicted in a court of law.”