Democrats want to "root out domestic extremists" at DHS

(Timothy Bullard/The Daily Courier via AP)

Some concerned Democrats are very worried that terrorists may have infiltrated the federal government, potentially at some of the highest levels. With that in mind, 65 of them have penned a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urging him to get to the bottom of this. So who has snuck in from across enemy lines? Is Al Qaeda making a comeback? Have some of the Taliban made it across the southern border and somehow landed jobs at DHS? No, it’s nothing like that. They have determined that some employees at Homeland Security are or used to be members of the Oath Keepers. So that apparently makes them “violent domestic extremists” and they need to be purged on an expedited basis. Let’s all watch and see how this plays out. (Raw Story)

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Dozens of Democratic lawmakers have urged the Department of Homeland Security to root out violent extremists within the agency after reports said more than 300 current or former employees had been members of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia.

The letter, signed by 65 Democrats on Monday, was addressed to DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and expressed concern over reports that vigilante paramilitary groups were patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border with the approval of federal agents, saying that violent extremism posed a lethal and persistent threat, reported the Washington Post.

“There’s real urgency here,” said Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY). An inability to identify extremist employees “creates real security issues and real credibility issues for the department, especially in light of the Oath Keepers’ role in Jan. 6 and the convictions for seditious conspiracy.”

One of the members stressed the need to clean out the ranks of “federal agents who are duty-bound to be fair, trusted enforcers of the law.” Really? Have you considered instead taking a look at the Department of Justice and inside the ranks of the FBI? Have they been acting like “fair, trusted enforcers of the law” recently? But I digress.

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Some of these Democrats apparently need to be reminded that it is not a crime to be a member of an organization, either formal or informal. We don’t put organizations on trial, nor are organizations convicted of crimes. Those are all procedures used against individuals who are plausibly accused of criminal actions.

Yes, a handful of the Oath Keepers were convicted of violent conduct during the J6 riot. They clearly had the book thrown at them harder than most, but they were part of the overall purge that DHS is attempting against everyone who so much as bought a hot dog in DC that day.

As to the other claims being made, the letter notes that “vigilante paramilitary groups were patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border.” But the Democrats also freely admit that they were doing so “with the approval of federal agents.” If they had the approval of the CBP or even the Texas National Guard, they probably weren’t breaking the law, now were they? But don’t let that bother you. Get them fired from their jobs based on a political whim.

I’ll freely admit that some of the Oath Keepers have taken things too far at times. Others are simply trying to help in a country that seems to be rapidly careening off the tracks in recent years. And during times of crisis, there are people in law enforcement, both on the border and elsewhere, who are probably glad to have some trained help show up in a pinch. Sadly, DHS has largely been captured by the woke ideology infecting the Biden administration and I will be sad but not shocked if Mayorkas follows his new marching orders.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 22, 2024
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