ICE Agents Under Investigation for 'Terrorism' Comments Directed at Ilhan Omar
After a news report released social media posts shared and liked by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents that criticized Democratic Congressman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, ICE has said it is reviewing the posts to see if any rules were broken.
The posts shared a claim that Ilhan, a Muslim, took “terrorism classes.”
Ilhan, a freshman in Congress, repeatedly criticized ICE during her campaign and has called for it to be abolished.
ICE will be investigating the incident, The Hill reported.
“Social media content posted by employees on their personal platforms should not be considered representative of agency policies or positions,” ICE spokesperson Jennifer Elzea said in a statement.
After reporting by Buzzfeed News indicated one of the agents posted other material that was offensive to Muslims, the leader of one group expressed outrage.
“It is alarming that a public official charged with executing our immigration policies endorses such toxic views of refugees, Muslims, and an elected official. Liking these types of posts means this senior ICE official is viewing many of the people under his authority in subhuman terms and therefore directly endangers their safety,” said Dalia Mogahed, the director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
Wait, wait, wait…agents get in trouble for “liking” tweets but Miss Anti-Semitic Ilhan doesn’t get in trouble for all the crap she’s said and done? Wow. https://t.co/8bOps3xJUT
— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) March 10, 2019
Scott Shuchart, a former senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security, called the posts “legal speech, and so long as these ICE employees are using private devices on their own time.”
Although Shuchart said he was “disgusted” he added, “I don’t believe there’s any cause for official action unless there’s a reason to think it’s abuse of public resources.”
Leslie Derewonko, a Homeland Security Investigations senior agent, shared a LinkedIn post with a video talking about Omar and terrorism, ABC reported.
“And this is what represents America?” he said in sharing the post, which called Omar a “Trojan horse” who entered the U.S. during the “refugee outbreak” in the administration of former President Barack Obama.
He later posted his own thoughts.
“Hell just make her the Director of National Security, obviously she not only took TERRORIST classes, she sat in class WITH THEM,” Derewonko wrote.
“Here’s a question to all you Intelligence Spooks types… WHO THE H— VETTED HER TO COME INTO THIS COUNTRY, and better yet, WHO THE H— VETTED HER AS A CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE?”
Buzzfeed reported that Jerry Templet, who works in Homeland Security Investigations in San Francisco, “liked” the posts.
The Hill reported that the posts were later removed.
The incident is not the first time Omar has been linked to terrorism. As reported by The Western Journal, a poster showing her picture along with the 9/11 attack caused a major fuss at the West Virginia statehouse earlier this month.
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