By Bethany Blankley (The Middle Sq.)
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, and Division of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sparred Tuesday over points associated to pro-Palestinian college students within the U.S. on visas and a DHS staffer expressing assist for the annihilation of Israel.
Mayorkas testified earlier than the Senate Homeland Safety Committee on Tuesday together with FBI Director Christopher Wray, who said the largest terrorist menace to People are violent extremists impressed by Islamic terrorist organizations like ISIS, al-Queda, Hamas and Iranian-financed teams.
Mayorkas was on the defensive with senators for many of his testimony after greater than 10 million folks illegally entered the U.S. beneath his watch, and after the greatest number of identified and suspected terrorists have been apprehended trying to enter the U.S. in fiscal 2023.
The main focus of Tuesday’s listening to was on “threats to the homeland” after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel final month and after the president, Wray and others have warned Americans {that a} terrorist menace on U.S. soil was extra seemingly than earlier than.
Forward of the listening to, Hawley despatched a letter to Mayorkas expressing issues a couple of DHS staffer, Nejwa Ali, who adjudicates immigration instances. Ali, a former spokeswoman for the Palestinian Liberation Group, expressed assist for destroying Israel on Oct. 7, the day Israel was attacked.
On the listening to, Hawley requested Mayorkas if he was aware of the mantra, “From the river to the ocean, Palestine might be free,” to which Mayorkas replied he was. The phrase refers to eradicating Israel, which is bordered by the Jordan River to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Hamas’ 2017 structure states, “Hamas rejects any various to the total and full liberation of Palestine, from the river to the ocean.”
Hawley requested Mayorkas what the mantra means, to which he replied, “it speaks of Palestinian need for its homeland and a really expansive definition of its homeland on the expense of the independence of Israel.”
It “requires the elimination of Israel, does it not?” Hawley requested.
“It does,” Mayorkas replied.
“So my query to you is, ought to college students who’re right here on a visa who collect and chant that slogan and actively advocate for the elimination of Israel and assaults on Jewish people, whether or not within the Center East or right here in the USA as we’re seeing on school campuses, ought to these college students have their visas revoked?” he requested.
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Hawley agrees with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who called for the administration to “cancel and rescind visas for international nationals who endorse or espouse terrorist exercise, together with those that defend or assist Hamas by calling for intifada, jihad, or different comparable actions to remove the Jewish state of Israel.”
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Mayorkas stated DHS was assessing the authorized assertion: “It’s a matter of authorized interpretation of the statute.”
“Effectively, simply as an ethical matter, ought to college students who’re right here, foreigners who’re right here on this nation accessing our college system and advocating for the killing of Jews, ought to they be allowed to remain right here at our leisure?” Hawley requested. Mayorkas repeated his reply.
Hawley then requested Mayorkas about an Oct. 7 tweet filled with expletives about Israel, additionally stating, “any Jew who helps Israel, might your conscience hang-out your desires till your final breath Palestine might be free someday.”
“That is fairly excessive rhetoric, don’t you suppose?” he requested.
“I do,” Mayorkas replied, including, “I believe there’s a distinction between espousing or endorsing terrorist ideology and speech that’s odious that doesn’t rise to that stage.”
Hawley then identified that Ali wrote the tweet and posted a photoshopped rendition of a paraglider with a machine gun flying into Israel, the identical technique Hamas terrorists used on Oct. 7. He requested if her posts have been “typical of people that work at DHS? That is an asylum immigration officer who’s posting these frankly professional genocidal slogans and pictures on the day that Israelis are being slaughtered of their beds. What have you ever carried out about this?”
Mayorkas replied, “to counsel that that’s emblematic of the women and men of the Division of Homeland Safety is despicable.”
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Hawley requested a number of instances if she had been fired. Mayorkas stated she was employed in 2019, had been positioned on administrative go away, and wouldn’t talk about ongoing personnel issues.
Hawley then stated, “Don’t come to this listening to room when Israel has been invaded and Jewish college students are barricaded in libraries on this nation and can’t be escorted out as a result of they’re threatened for his or her lives. You may have workers who’re celebrating genocide and you might be saying it’s despicable for me to ask the query, has she been fired? I believe that your efficiency is despicable and I believe the actual fact that you’re not prepared to supply solutions to this committee is totally atrocious.”
In response, Mayorkas stated, Hawley’s query was “despicable” and took “an adversarial method” in direction of him. “Maybe he doesn’t know my very own background. Maybe he doesn’t know that I’m the kid of a Holocaust survivor. Maybe he doesn’t know that my mom misplaced nearly all her household by the hands of the Nazis. And so I discover his adversarial tone to be completely misplaced. I discover it to be disrespectful of me and my heritage, and I don’t count on an apology. However I did need to say what I simply articulated.”
At a Senate Homeland Safety committee listening to on Tuesday Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, grilled DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about revoking the visas of scholars who advocate for the destruction of Israel and about whether or not a DHS staffer who expressed assist for the… pic.twitter.com/wDmzwbKkrP
— Bethany Blankley (@BethanyBlankley) November 1, 2023
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Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
