Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson suggested that federal law enforcement authorities may have a blind spot when it comes to thwarting rightwing extremists.
Johnson made the statements before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday, when pressed to discuss how his department is attempting to prevent homegrown acts of terrorism like the white supremacist attack that took the lives of nine worshippers last month at a historically black church in Charleston.
“At the moment, my priority has been focusing on communities that I believe are most vulnerable to appeals from ISIL, al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups overseas who are actively targeting individuals in these communities,” Johnson said.
Citing the Oklahoma City bombing, he added that “without a doubt, there is the potential” for rightwing domestic terror threats. But, Johnson claimed, a program that counters domestic violent extremism is, in his judgment, “a little more complicated” because of its recruitment efforts.
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) urged Johnson to reconsider his analysis. He said that Homeland Security should be focused on “threats from afar,” but said “the fact is we’ve got more of a threat domestically to our lives than we do internationally.”
Cohen referenced a report released in June by the Washington-based research center, New America, which found that since 9/11, non-Muslim, rightwing extremists have killed roughly twice as many people in the United States than Islamic terrorists have.
According to a separate survey of police departments last month, 74 percent pointed to anti-government violence as the biggest threat to communities. Only 39 percent put “al-Qaeda inspired” attacks atop the list.
Cohen also noted that in 2009 DHS shut down a division focused solely on countering homegrown extremism, and asked Johnson if there were plans to open it back up again. Johnson replied that he would have to get back to the Congressman with an answer.
Tuesday’s hearing marked the latest attempt by lawmakers to urge the department to shift more of its focus to rightwing extremism.
During a House subcommittee hearing last week, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) blasted DHS representatives for refusing to testify in an “open setting” on what the department is doing about active white supremacist and sovereign citizen-style militants.
“If you look at who the bad people are in this country right now, they’re not Muslims, they’re not people who identify with Islamic faith,” Rep. Thompson said during the hearing.
Last month, members of the House Congressional Progressive Caucus wrote a letter to Secretary Johnson, criticizing the “disproportionate amount of money and manpower” that goes toward countering Islamic extremism.
The letter, which was drafted by caucus co-chairs Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Raul Grijalva (R-Ariz.), stated that the allocation of counterterrorist resources at DHS “comes at a heavy price of repeated attacks on churches, temples and community centers for African American Christians, Sikh Americans and Jewish Americans.”
