Senator, Homeland Security chief clash over pro-Hamas DHS employee

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) questioned Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for employing staff that had celebrated the October 7 attack in Israel, in a now-viral exchange from October 31. The meeting was meant to be focused on risks to the United States.

Hawley displayed social media posts of a Palestinian employee of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during the questioning. The posts belonged to an Asylum & Immigration officer, according to Hawley.

The posts include an image of Hamas terrorists paragliding over Jerusalem while holding guns. The image is captioned “Free PALESTINE.” Hawley described the posts as “pro-genocidal.”

Hamas operatives paraglided over the Gaza security fence on October 7, into the Supernova festival and surrounding areas where they began brutally raping and murdering civilians and civilian partygoers. The symbol of paragliders has since become heavily associated with Hamas and pro-Hamas groups.

The Instagram account of the employee has since been made private and the status of their employment is unknown.

Hawley asked Mayorkas “What have you done about this?”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ response

In his response, Mayorkas stated that “number one, what I found despicable is the implication that this language is, tremendously odious, actually could be emblematic of the sentiments of the 160,000 men and women of the Department of Homeland Security.

“Number two, Senator Hawley takes an adversarial approach to me in this question and perhaps he doesn’t know my own background. Perhaps he does not know that I am the child of a Holocaust survivor. Perhaps he does not know that my mother lost almost all her family at the hands of the Nazis. So, I find his adversarial tone to be entirely misplaced. I find it to be disrespectful of me and my heritage and I do not expect an apology, but I did want to say what I just articulated.“

After the clash, Hawley continued his questioning of Mayorkas over X, when he shared a post about the pro-Hamas DHS employee. “Perhaps @SecMayorkas would care to comment on this,” he wrote.

Perhaps @SecMayorkas would care to comment on this https://t.co/VJGHg4GKz8

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 2, 2023

In addition to the aforementioned exchange, Mayorkas had begun the meeting by condemning the October 7 attack and addressed the need to confront how the world had changed since the September report issued by his department.

"In September, the Department of Homeland Security published the 2024 Homeland Threat Assessment, laying out the most direct, pressing threats to our security. Already, in the weeks since the assessment was published, the world has changed," Mayorkas said, according to the DHS website. "Hamas terrorists horrifically attacked thousands of innocent men, women, and children in Israel on October 7, brutally murdering, wounding, and taking hostages of all ages."

"In the days and weeks since, we have responded to an increase in threats against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab-American communities and institutions across our country. Hate directed at Jewish students, communities, and institutions adds to a preexisting increase in the level of antisemitism in the United States and around the world."