Mayorkas: SCOTUS Overturning Roe ‘Has Really Heightened the Threat Environment’

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, his department has seen a “really heightened” threat environment.

Partial transcript as follows:

BRENNAN: Mr. Secretary, I also want to ask you here at home about what we’ve seen in the past 24 hours. There’s been this back and forth between state and federal law enforcement regarding security to Supreme Court justices and protests outside their home. Does the threat go beyond picketing? Is it specific and credible?

MAYORKAS: So we have seen a heightened threat environment- environment over the last several months over a number of different volatile issues that galvanize people on different sides of each issue. We in the Department of Homeland Security, become involved when there’s a connectivity between the- the opposition to a particular view or an ideology of hate, a false narrative and violence. It is that connectivity to violence when we engage and we are very mindful that the Supreme Court’s decision in reversing and overturning Roe v. Wade has really heightened the threat environment and we have deployed resources to ensure the safety and security of the Supreme Court and the justices. We in the Department of Homeland Security have deployed personnel for that purpose. We do not condone violence and law enforcement will and has responded to acts of violence when people do not honor their freedom to protest peacefully, but instead violate the laws of our country and the states within it.

BRENNAN: Before I let you go, I do want to ask you about what we saw this weekend up in Boston, a white supremacist group called Patriot Front marched through that city. They recently planned events, a riot in Idaho, you’re seeing this far right group the Proud Boys also disrupt events in California. How concerned are you right now about these militias?

MAYORKAS: Margaret, I have said and this has been echoed by the director of the FBI, that domestic violent extremism is one of the greatest terrorism-related threats that we face in the homeland today. Individuals spurred by ideologies of hate, false narratives personal grievances, to acts of violence, and it is that violence that we respond to, and we seek to of course, prevent. We are in a heightened threat environment–

BRENNAN: So should funding and recruitment- should funding and recruitment and membership be considered prosecutable? I mean, you just put it in the context of terrorism. They’re not designated terror groups. How should Americans think of them?

MAYORKAS: No, it’s- it’s really the acts of violence and the- and the threats that harm individuals where law enforcement becomes involved. We of course protect vigorously individual’s right to express themselves peacefully, the First Amendment rights and that is something that we safeguard, but violence and threats of violence we do not condone.

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