Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri demanded answers from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday about anti-Semitic comments made by one of the department’s employees.
During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday, Hawley questioned Mayorkas about a U.S. Customs and Immigration Services employee who celebrated the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel on social media.
Hawley noted that the employee, Nejwa Ali, posted comments on Instagram such as, “May your [conscience] haunt your dreams until your last [breath]” and “F*** APARTHEID Israel.”
Ali also posted a fake image of a Hamas militant paragliding into Israel wielding a gun. The image was captioned, “Free PALESTINE.”
“This person works for you. This is Nejwa Ali, an employee of the Department of Homeland Security, who posted these comments on Oct. 7,” Hawley told Mayorkas.
“Mr. Secretary, what’s going on here? Is this typical of people who work at DHS?” the senator asked.
“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. What have you done about this?”
Mayorkas then dropped the businesslike tone usually used in testimony before a congressional committee.
“To suggest that that is emblematic of the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security is despicable,” he said.
That response elicited anger from Hawley, who cut Mayorkas off and unleashed on the DHS head.
“I’m sorry, this person works for the Department of Homeland Security. Have you fired her?” Hawley shot back.
“Have you fired her?” he repeated as Mayorkas attempted to speak.
Hawley continued, “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.
“You have employees who are celebrating genocide and you are saying it’s despicable for me to ask the question?”
After further tense discussion, Mayorkas said Ali had been placed on administrative leave.
An Oct. 19 letter sent by Hawley to Mayorkas demanded Ali’s firing.
The letter stated that Ali has “a documented history of making virulently antisemitic, pro-Hamas statements.”
Hawley asked Mayorkas to make available the number of immigration cases involving Palestinians and Jews Ali has handled and the ultimate outcomes of those cases.
“As Secretary, you must assure the American people that those charged with determining who enters the United States do so impartially and without prejudice,” Hawley wrote.
It was previously reported that Ali also served as a spokeswoman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a designated foreign terrorist organization, before landing her job at DHS in 2019.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
