DHS stands up domestic terror intelligence team
The Biden administration is placing a new focus on domestic extremism. But advocates of those previously caught in the crosshairs aren't sold.
When President Joe Biden addressed Congress last month, he said white supremacist terrorism is the greatest threat to the U.S. Now, as the White House prepares to release its report on domestic terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security is also continuing to shift its focus to domestic threats.
The Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence arm is setting up a dedicated team to focus on domestic terrorism, two DHS officials told POLITICO. The team will have several full-time personnel. DHS is also renaming and refocusing a separate office that has drawn criticism for its prior work fighting extremism. The moves come as the department is increasing its focus on domestic terrorism and violent threats.
DHS is grappling with the growing threat of domestic terrorism, particularly attacks perpetrated by white supremacists. The Biden administration and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have made countering the threat a top priority and launched an internal review scrutinizing domestic extremism in the department’s ranks.
Earlier this year, DHS sent out its first-ever National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin about domestic terrorism. But addressing the threat presents complex challenges, and groups representing American Muslims and others focused on civil rights aren’t yet convinced the department will get it right.
Those communities have long raised concerns about what DHS calls countering violent extremism, or CVE. Since the Obama administration, those efforts have been housed under a number of different monikers at DHS. But their focus on extremism within the American Muslim community drew condemnation as discriminatory and stigmatizing spying efforts.
Most recently, DHS’s Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention tried to combat white supremacist terrorism during the Trump administration. But officials previously told POLITICO that they won scant buy-in from the White House and struggled to significantly improve those efforts. Despite that, incoming Biden officials have praised the office’s work. In remarks submitted to Congress for a March hearing, John Cohen — DHS’s top counterterror official — said the office is DHS’s “key node” for its work to prevent terror attacks.
On the campaign trail, Biden promised to eliminate the office as part of efforts to partner with the Arab American community.
These new changes — which DHS will describe as a replacement for the previous office — point to an effort to prevent violent attacks. The newly named Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships will focus on partnering with community organizations, civil society groups, local law enforcement and other groups to expand community-based violence prevention programs, the officials said.
Its leaders also plan to work with the tech industry and outside academics to assess which online narratives may be most likely to incite violence. And, according to the officials, it will try to gauge the threat people may pose based on behavioral assessments — rather than ideology. In other words, the officials told POLITICO, the days of CVE are over.
But these efforts face skepticism. Harsha Panduranga of the Brennan Center for Justice said efforts to predict the threats people pose based on their behavior could cast a net that is way too wide.
“A lot of these characteristics that we’re talking about are shared by millions and millions of Americans: social isolation, having a grievance, whatever that means,” he told POLITICO. “It really could capture broad swaths of the U.S. population.”
“If you’re going to focus on these supposed risk factors and trying to reduce these risk factors to violence, what you’re really talking about is remedying broader social issues,” he added. “And law enforcement involvement in that and any intelligence-sharing in that context could undermine the goals of what you’re trying to do.”
Hussam Ayloush, the head of the Council on American Islamic Relations, Los Angeles, also said he didn’t see the announcement as particularly encouraging.
“I’m tired of seeing our community being used as some test ground for new programs, as the guinea pig for one surveillance program after the other,” he said. “I’m going to withhold judgment on the specifics of this program because I obviously haven’t seen it. What I’m saying is, it would be an understatement to say that — as a civil rights organization and leader myself — that I’m skeptical.”
Meanwhile, Abed Ayoub, the legal and policy director of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, told POLITICO that he participated in meetings between community groups and DHS officials about the changes.
“They’ve done a much better job than the prior administration at listening to community concerns, and so far they’ve done a better job than the Obama administration at listening to our concerns,” he said. “We are cautiously optimistic.”
“We have to give them a chance to see how this plays out,” he added. “And if we need to hold them accountable, we’ll hold them accountable.”