The committee found in its monthly Terror Threat Snapshot that "Cases of homegrown Islamist extremism in the United States continue to increase as US persons radicalize."
"Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, there have been 209 homegrown jihadist cases in the United States, of which 132 involved ISIS-related arrests," the snapshot details.
The report also made note of recent arrests of those attempting to join extremist groups and carry out terror attacks in the US, like 26-year-old Ohio man Laith Waleed Alebbini, who was arrested before boarding a flight to Chicago, en route to Turkey to join Daesh.
After being apprehended in January, attempting to illegally enter the Turkish embassy in Washington, DC, Alebbini said, "If I had a bomb on me, I swear to God, three embassies would have gone down." No charges were filed in that incident.
Two residents of Zion, Illinois – Edward Schimenti, also known as Abdul Wali and Joseph Jones, also known as Yusuf Abdulhaqq – were arrested two weeks before Alebbini for attempting to supply Daesh with material support.
Since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, there have been 209 cases of domestic extremism opened in the US, and more than 20 percent of them were in the last year. More than half of the cases involve arrests made in connection to Daesh.
As Daesh-held territories in Syria and Iraq are gradually reclaimed from the terrorist group, US Homeland Security Committee chair Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) said there’s been a "noticeable shift in the [Daesh’s] directives."
"With the so-called ISIS 'caliphate' in the Middle East deteriorating, jihadists are increasingly told to stay where they are and carry out attacks at home," he said on Monday.
McCaul said that the recent shooting in Paris ahead of the French presidential election that left one police officer dead, “illustrates ISIS’ attempts to instill fear and disrupt Western life. America is showing the world that we will no longer stand idly by while freedom is endangered, and we will continue to take the fight to those who wish us harm – at home and abroad."
US officials estimated in February that about 1,900 of the 7,000 Western fighters who left their home countries to fight for Daesh were making their way back to Europe, which could put the US at risk because regional security resources have been "stretched to the limit."
During a congressional testimony, former CIA director David Petraeus said "We have to recognize that as [ISIS is] defeated in Iraq and Syria, if they're not killed and if they don't melt into the population in those areas and retire from a life of extremism, they will go home and they will go home to European services," according to the Washington Free Beacon.
