Senator Asks FBI Director About Rise In Antisemitic, Anti-Muslim, And Anti-Immigrant Hate Incidents

3 months ago

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray about the rise in hate crimes.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Mr. Peters, thank you for your patience.

00:02Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:03Director Wray, good to see you again, as always, and thank you for your service to our country.

00:07Director Wray, last year, as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee,

00:12I released a report on the watchlisting and screening processes at airports,

00:18and the report raised concerns about the watchlist, including who it is shared with,

00:24its implementation, its oversight, as well as the redress process.

00:30In particular, the report found insufficient transparency, lack of a holistic approach to screening,

00:37and no meaningful options to resolve concerns for Americans who believe that they were misidentified

00:42or subject to discrimination.

00:46Certain communities, such as Muslim, Arab, and South Asian Americans,

00:50report disparate screening during their travel,

00:53and the breakdown in trust over the inability to redress the process.

00:59Certainly, I think you agree the administration, including the FBI,

01:02must effectively target our resources to protect our country from terrorism, first and foremost,

01:07but we also need to respect the rights of innocent Americans as well.

01:13So my question for you, sir, is I believe you're familiar with this report,

01:17and what steps have you taken to ensure that there's more transparency, especially to Congress,

01:22about the watchlist and other data sets maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center,

01:27as recommended in the report that my committee published?

01:30Certainly, I agree, as you stated, that it's important that the database be used to protect our national security

01:37and, at the same time, respect civil liberties.

01:41No one is placed on the watchlist solely because of race, ethnicity, national origin,

01:46religious affiliation, or any First Amendment-protected activities,

01:49and there is a rigorous interagency process.

01:52There are continuous review and quality control measures.

01:56We're constantly taking advantage of new methods and technologies to strengthen those processes.

02:01And while the FBI and the TSC, as I know you know because of your other role,

02:06are not responsible for the actual travel screening,

02:09we do work diligently with the interagency to try to make sure we're maintaining a current and accurate watchlist.

02:15Recently, the TSC put out a comprehensive document about the watchlist process,

02:23which includes everything from the process for nominations, the use of the list, quality assurance measures,

02:31and, to the heart of your question, the redress procedures.

02:35And so our hope is that that document strikes the balance of the two issues that you mentioned

02:40in terms of providing more transparency about all those processes so that people know how it works,

02:47know how they can challenge if they have something they want to challenge,

02:51while, at the same time, not compromising our national security.

02:55Ironically, some of the transparency around this process

02:59could itself infringe on people's privacy and civil liberty

03:03because of who it identifies in a way that maybe they wouldn't want being identified.

03:08Right. It is always a careful balance, but we have to continue to work.

03:11We've been working with your team. We hope we can continue to do that.

03:15And it's been a particular issue in Detroit Airport, for example, for reasons you and I have discussed many times.

03:22Director Wray, we have seen historic spikes in anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab American hate incidents,

03:31certainly driven by the war between Israel and Hamas.

03:34We're also seeing rising anti-immigrant rhetoric,

03:37which in the past has inspired domestic terror attacks in Pittsburgh and El Paso, for example.

03:42DOJ has also announced it's investigating dozens of violent threats against election workers

03:48and has already convicted 13 individuals.

03:51And, as you said earlier, you're increasingly concerned about the potential

03:55for a coordinated foreign terrorist attack here in the homeland.

04:00So the threat of a terrorist attack is high,

04:02and we don't know what will inspire the next attack or where it will happen.

04:07But my question for you is, given all of these threats,

04:10how is the FBI now prioritizing resources to protect these communities from these very threats?

04:17Well, you covered a waterfront because there's a waterfront to threats.

04:23So to start with, on the terrorism side,

04:26terrorism, which includes both foreign terrorism and domestic terrorism,

04:31remains our number one priority.

04:33That has not changed.

04:36And that drives prioritization within all the field offices, for one thing.

04:41Second, we, a couple years ago, elevated civil rights,

04:47specifically including hate crimes, to what we call a national threat priority.

04:52And the effect of that is to drive prioritization in all the field offices.

04:59In addition, I created, a few years ago,

05:04something that we call the Domestic Terrorism Hate Crimes Fusion Cell,

05:08because what I found was that sometimes the same act of violence

05:15could be considered either a hate crime or an act of domestic terrorism.

05:20In many ways, it's the same type of attack.

05:24It's just two different legal structures.

05:26And in the FBI, the criminal investigative division,

05:29we have people who focus on hate crimes,

05:31and then, of course, we have people who focus on the national security side, on terrorism.

05:35And so this fusion cell that I created brought the two groups together

05:39to ensure both that nothing slips through the cracks,

05:42but also, maybe more importantly, to try to see if we can better anticipate

05:47and to be more proactive to prevent these attacks in the first place

05:51as to solely responding after they tragically occur.

05:54And I'm proud of some of the work that was done,

05:56including, I think for the first time ever a couple years ago now,

06:00a proactive hate crimes charge that disrupted an attack against a synagogue.

06:08I believe it was in Nevada, but it could have been in Colorado

06:11or one of each.

06:13Great. Thank you. Appreciate that.

06:15I look forward to continuing to work with you.

06:17Thank you, Madam Chair.

Senator Asks FBI Director About Rise In Antisemitic, Anti-Muslim, And Anti-Immigrant Hate Incidents

Category

Transcript

Recommended