At the Sept. 21 Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on counterterrorism, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas touted a raft of new programs aimed at combating domestic extremism—many of which are raising red flags among interest groups across the political spectrum. The new DHS plans follow a March 2021 intelligence community report that deems white supremacy and violent domestic extremism as the most dangerous terrorism threat to the homeland. Mayorkas made similar statements at the Sept. 21 hearing. “Today, U.S.-based lone actors and small groups, including homegrown violent extremists and domestic violent extremists—who are inspired by a broad range of ideological motivations—pose the most significant and persistent terrorism-related threat to our country,” Mayorkas said. According to Mayorkas, these “broad range of ideological motivations” include “racial bias, perceived government overreach, conspiracy theories promoting violence, and false narratives about unsubstantiated fraud in the 2020 presidential election.” Mayorkas did not explain what he meant by “perceived …
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