World Courant
Washington, DC – Greater than 100 Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) staff have signed an open letter to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas denouncing the division’s dealing with of the struggle in Gaza.
The letter, solely obtained by Al Jazeera, expresses frustration on the “palpable, obtrusive absence within the ministry’s messages” of “recognition, assist and mourning” for the greater than 18,000 Palestinians who’ve been killed because the struggle started on October 7. died in Gaza. .
“The intense humanitarian disaster in Gaza and situations within the West Financial institution are circumstances to which the Division would usually reply in several methods,” mentioned the letter, dated November 22.
“But DHS management has seemingly turned a blind eye to the bombing of refugee camps, hospitals, ambulances and civilians.”
Signatories to the letter embrace 139 personnel from DHS and the companies it manages, corresponding to Customs and Border Safety (CBP), the Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and US Citizenship and Immigration Companies (USCIS).
However some employees members “selected to signal this letter anonymously” for concern of backlash, the doc defined. It known as on DHS to “present a good and balanced account of the scenario and permit respectful expressions with out concern {of professional} repercussions.”
DHS didn’t reply to Al Jazeera’s request for remark on the time of publication.
The letter is the most recent indication of rifts inside the administration of President Joe Biden, which has confronted inside criticism over his administration’s place on the Gaza struggle.
Final month, greater than 500 officers from 40 authorities companies despatched an nameless letter urging Biden to name for a right away ceasefire in Gaza. One other letter, signed by a thousand U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth (USAID) staff, made the same name.
However Biden was reluctant to criticize Israel’s ongoing army offensive in Gaza, as a substitute pledging his “agency and unwavering” assist for the longtime US ally.
In an inside message on November 2, Mayorkas reiterated Biden’s place. He denounced the “heinous terrorist assaults in Israel on October 7” perpetrated by the Palestinian group Hamas, however made no point out of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
“The fallout (of Oct. 7) continues to ripple by way of Jewish, Arab-American, Muslim and different communities in every single place,” Mayorkas wrote.
“It makes me really feel good to know that our division is on the entrance traces of defending our communities from anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and different types of bigotry and hatred.”
US President Joe Biden has expressed “unwavering” assist for Israel because it wages a months-long army offensive in Gaza (Leah Millis/Reuters)
However two DHS staffers who spoke to Al Jazeera on situation of anonymity believed that the division’s management ought to go additional to deal with the rising dying toll in Gaza, the place civilians stay underneath Israeli siege.
United Nations consultants have already warned of a “severe threat of genocide” within the space as provides run low and bombs proceed to fall.
“I’m deeply dedicated to the federal authorities,” mentioned an nameless DHS official. “I’ve served in numerous capacities. I believed very a lot in our mission.
“After which, after October 7, I really feel like there’s simply been a dramatic shift within the expectation of what we must always do when there is a humanitarian disaster and what we really do when there’s politics concerned. very, very terrifying, chilling affect.
The employees’s open letter calls on DHS to take motion in Gaza “in step with earlier responses to humanitarian tragedies,” together with by establishing a humanitarian parole program for the Palestinians within the space.
That may permit them to quickly enter the US “on the premise of pressing humanitarian causes or causes of overriding public curiosity.”
The letter additionally urged DHS to establish residents of the Palestinian territories who certified for “short-term protected standing,” or TPS. That may permit Palestinians already within the US to stay within the nation and qualify for work permits.
Such applications have been established for different conflicts, together with for Ukrainians going through a large-scale invasion from Russia.
Final month, 106 members of Congress – together with Senator Dick Durbin and Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Jerry Nadler – even despatched a letter to Biden urging a TPS designation for the Palestinian territories.
Biden has been criticized for providing short-term protected standing to Ukrainians however not Palestinians in Gaza (Evan Vucci/AP Picture)
However one of many nameless DHS officers who spoke to Al Jazeera mentioned that whereas there was dialogue a couple of potential TPS designation, motion appears unlikely.
“There have been many severe systemic and programmatic obstacles precipitated purely by politics,” she mentioned.
A part of the problem is that the US doesn’t acknowledge Palestine as a international state, calling into query its eligibility for TPS.
“We don’t acknowledge Palestine as a state. We do not code them with that,” the DHS official defined. “And that is one thing from Customs and Border Safety, ICE and USCIS. Obstacles have simply been put in place on the highest ranges of those companies.”
The official suspects she is aware of why. “They’re involved about their very own operations by way of eradicating or deporting individuals to Gaza and the West Financial institution in the event that they have been to vary these codes.”
However that inaction has taken a heavy toll on employees’ psychological well being, in keeping with the DHS officers Al Jazeera spoke to.
One described how colleagues with household in Gaza had obtained no assist from DHS management as they tried to get their family members to security.
The opposite, a senior worker who labored for the federal authorities for greater than a decade, described nightmares about shedding his personal kids.
He mentioned he wakes up “with the data that we’re not actually doing all the pieces we will to supply applications and help to the Palestinians.”
“It’s completely distressing and disheartening to really feel that, for political causes, we’re not addressing the battle in the identical method as different earlier, latest humanitarian crises, for instance in Ukraine.”
Homes are in ruins after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, a part of the southern Gaza Strip, on December 12 (Fadi Shana/Reuters)
The senior official expressed dismay that Biden’s immigration insurance policies have remained much like these of his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
Biden has been underneath strain to restrict arrivals into the US, particularly as migration throughout the US-Mexico border will increase.
“The issue, frankly, is that the Biden administration has been very lukewarm about going too far on immigration and focusing nearly solely on the southern border and the way that impacts the administration politically. That has had a variety of affect on decision-making relating to new applications,” the official mentioned.
That lukewarmness has left most of the nameless DHS officers feeling demoralized and questioning their sense of mission.
“We have now the flexibility to do something, something, however we simply aren’t,” one of many officers mentioned.
Letter accuses the US safety service of ‘turning a blind eye’ to the struggling in Gaza | Israeli-Palestinian Battle Information
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