Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley grilled Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Tuesday over his employee’s social media posts praising Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on civilians in Israel.
Hawley, during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, pressed Mayorkas on why he hasn’t fired an asylum officer that posted rhetoric supporting Hamas’ attack while working at DHS. Nejwa Ali, a U.S. asylum officer, posted on her Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts calling for Israel’s destruction and praising Hamas’ terrorist attack, according to posts first reported by The Daily Wire.
“F*** Israel, the government, and its military. Are you ready for your downfall?” she wrote on Instagram after the attacks, according to The Daily Wire.
“How Nejwa wakes up,” Ali posted Oct. 9 on social media along with a video captioned “F*** Israel and any Jew that supports Israel” and a photo with the words “A nation that has nothing but Allah has everything it will ever need,” The Daily Wire reported.
Hawley grilled Mayorkas on why Ali is still employed by DHS and said the posts were “pretty extreme rhetoric.”
“Senator, I do and I think there is a distinction between espousing or endorsing terrorist ideology and speech that is odious. That does not rise to that level,” Mayorkas responded.
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“Fair enough, this person works for you,” Hawley said.
Hawley reiterated that Ali is employed by Mayorkas and asked if this “is typical of people who work at DHS.”
“This is an asylum and immigration officer who is posting these frankly, pro-genocidal slogans and images on the day that Israelis are being slaughtered in their beds,” Hawley said. “What have you done about this?”
Mayorkas responded that the question was “despicable,” to which Hawley doubled down and asked repeatedly whether Ali had been fired.
“Have you fired her, have you fired her? Don’t come to this hearing room when Israel has been invaded and Jewish students are barricaded in libraries in this country and cannot be escorted out because they are threatened for their lives,” Hawley said. “You have employees who are celebrating genocide, and you are saying it’s despicable for me to ask the question. Has she been fired?”
Mayorkas did not provide a clear response and only said that she had been placed on “administrative leave.”
“The individual was hired in 2019, number three, I cannot speak to an ongoing personnel matter,” Mayorkas said.
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