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In the aftermath of mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, President Trump vowed Monday to give federal law enforcement “whatever they need” to investigate and disrupt hate crimes and domestic terrorism. He didn't mention the Homeland Security dept. lat.ms/2MK0JFx @latimes 1/
@latimes Clearly, Trump has leveraged DHS to an almost unprecedented degree to crack down on immigration and step up enforcement, the central animus of his WH. But the third largest federal agency has a huge array of missions - including the one in its name. lat.ms/2MK0JFx 2/
For decades, the threat of domestic terrorism has been growing, and in particular from anti-government, right-wing, and white nationalist groups, per @FBI , Brennan Center for Justice, ADL, Southern Poverty Law Center, and so on. 3/
Facts: Last year, every extremist killing in the United States, from Pittsburgh to Parkland, had ties to far-right extremist hate groups or ideology, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism bit.ly/2S6yrYT 4/
The FBI has noted a sharp increase in domestic terrorism cases involving white supremacists cnn.it/2EuNq6S (per great reporting by @evanperez ) 5/
White nationalists are increasingly using terrorist rhetoric, says the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit focused on civil rights. And now they are praising the attack in El Paso, where the death toll rose to 22 on Monday. bit.ly/33aaEdl 6/
Right-wing and anti-government groups have carried out more domestic attacks, and killed more Americans, than foreign terrorist groups or "jihadists" since 2001: bit.ly/2iKbWXQ @NewAmerica bit.ly/20E290E @splcenter 7/
Today, acting DHS secretary Kevin McAleenan confirmed FBI assessment white supremacist violence top domestic terrorist threat bit.ly/2KweIvP - but said DHS doesn't have sufficient resources to combat bit.ly/2ZAG1f5 per @CBSThisMorning 8/
But this is also a choice about priorities - and Trump officials have redirected DHS funding and focus *away* from anti-government, far right, white supremacist domestic terrorism threats lat.ms/2MK0JFx @latimes 9/
Under Trump, 85% of “countering violent extremism” or CVE grants awarded by DHS explicitly target Muslims and other minority groups, including immigrants and refugees, more than under Obama, according to Brennan Center for Justice at NYU law - bit.ly/2YPJCo1 10/
In Trump’s first wks transition team told Homeland Security officials they wanted to reorient programs meant to combat violent extremism-including racism fueled-to focus almost exclusively on the threat posed by radical Islamic terrorism bit.ly/33ceWB7 @ForeignPolicy 11/
In April, McAleenan announced a new Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention, incl “racially motivated violence.” It appears to largely be a rebranding of an Obama-era initiative. "Lipstick on a pig" said one former DHS official under Obama. 12/
Under Obama, the office had about 40 full-time staff & $24-m annual budget, according to Nate Snyder, an Obama administration counterterrorism official. The office now has fewer than 10 full-time employees and a budget below $3m, Snyder says. lat.ms/2MK0JFx 13/
“Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger, not the gun" Trump said. At least 12 other DHS CVE programs focus on mental health services for potential violent extremists. But numerous studies disprove theory that terrorism is a mental health problem: bit.ly/2YPJCo1 14/
DHS CVE programs have checkered record on civil rights dating to Obama that have also eroded public trust - yet Trum has tripled CVE $ direct to law enforcement from ~$764k to $2.34m “intelligence gathering under the guise of community-based programs” bit.ly/2YPJCo1 15/
US nat'sec post-9/11 geared toward countering foreign, Islamist terrorism, downplaying domestic, racist extremism. “Very little has been done on white supremacist ideology...it’s been a bipartisan glaring hole in the countering violent extremism policy response” @SeamusHughes END
