Senator Rosen: “I was really surprised and disappointed that the Department of Homeland Security’s 20-page internal review of domestic violent extremism released last Friday didn’t even mention antisemitism once”
Watch Video of Senator Rosen’s Remarks HERE
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (HSGAC) and co-chair of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, pressed Deputy Under Secretary for Intelligence Enterprise Operations Stephanie Dobitsch during a hearing about the Department of Homeland Security’s failure to track antisemitic violence as a driver for domestic violent extremism. During the hearing, Rosen also questioned Homeland Security officials about ways to improve the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which protects synagogues and other houses of worship from terrorist attacks and for which Rosen helped secure a $70 million increase in the omnibus appropriations bill the President signed into law yesterday.
BELOW IS A TRANSCRIPT OF SENATOR ROSEN’S EXCHANGE WITH THE WITNESS:
ROSEN: I was really surprised and disappointed that the Department of Homeland Security’s 20-page internal review of domestic violent extremism, released last Friday, didn’t even mention antisemitism once. Not once. I am also concerned by the finding in the report that DHS does not, and I’m going to quote here, “track domestic violent extremism allegations as their own sub-category of misconduct. Instead, such allegations were classified under another sub-category.”
Ms. Dobitsch, we need accurate information to be nimble in the fight against violent extremism. We have to get actionable data out to our communities. Why doesn’t I&A track antisemitism and other forms of hate as their own category? So, again, people have their grants, we’re doing all these other things. We need to be sure we can act on it. So, Ms. Dobitsch, can you tell us a little bit about why I&A doesn’t track antisemitism?
DOBITSCH: Thank you for that question, Ma’am. For us, we look at all threats of violence and try to understand and analyze those threats that are politically or ideologically motivated in some way. And in terms of the threat, we absolutely see antisemitism as a real threat to the American people. We’ve seen antisemitism racially and…
ROSEN: So why not report on it? What’s the issue? Why isn’t it mentioned?
DOBITSCH: I’m not aware of the details of the internal review, which is…
ROSEN: I’d be glad to provide them for you. I think there just has to be coordination between the internal review and DHS and how everyone’s talking–FBI and DHS–getting our definitions together. We have a lack of standardized reporting, standardized definitions. And again, communities are suffering out there. Not just the Jewish communities, Asian communities, African American communities.
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