There is a rise in the number of domestic terrorism incidents nationwide, acting Department of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan, who made the issue his top priority when taking office in April, said Wednesday.
"The FBI director (Christopher Wray) testified last month about 850 domestic terrorism investigations ongoing," McAleenan told Fox News "Fox and Friends," pointing out that a number of them were based on "racially-motivated violent extremist ideologies."
"We have to get out in front of that, both in the prevention side, identifying individuals on a pathway to violence, through the Secret Service, and the National Threat Assessment Center," McAleenan said. "We told state and local communities, mental health providers, school resource officers, those indicators they need to look for to identify someone who is on a path to violence, interdict, get an off-ramp, so they don't become violent and mount an attack."
McAleenan said he was in Jackson, Mississippi on Tuesday with members of the Homeland Security Advisory Council and lawmakers on the national and local level to discuss attacks on faith-based organizations and churches and to determine how they can be better addressed.
McAleenan also discussed the growing complaints and acts against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including a bullet hole found in an upper story window of an ICE facility in San Antonio
"I think the environment where we're demonizing law enforcement for doing their jobs, enforcing the laws on the books is concerning," said McAleenan, "We have to have a balanced enforcement process to have integrity in the immigration system. We can't do everything at the border."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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