AKIPRESS.COM - Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told reporters at a press conference Tuesday that a 'high-level individual' warned him that over 50,000 ?entral Asians crossed illegally into the U.S. in 2023, Daily Mail reported.

That same individual from ?entral Asia, Daines said, also expressed concern about a possible terror attack within the U.S., as the migrants could be a 'part of sleeper cells for a possible terror attack on our soil.'

Currently, at least 40,000 Central Asian nationals are awaiting U.S. asylum court proceedings, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a non-profit that tracks asylum court hearings.

Of those Central Asian nationals 17,000 are from Uzbekistan, 7,000 are from Kyrgyzstan, 3,000 are from Tajikistan, 2,700 are from Kazakhstan and 2,000 from Turkmenistan.