Deutch Directs Antisemitism Letter to Mayorkas

Florida Rep. Ted Deutch (D) has directed a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking him to address growing antisemitism. Joined by a bipartisan group of 88 members of Congress, Deutch called for Secretary Mayorkas “to take urgent action to address antisemitism.”

In the letter, the lawmakers make note that they have been members of previous efforts calling on the Biden administration to respond to the growing concern.

“Many of us were part of the group of Members of Congress who wrote to President Biden on May 28, 2021, amidst a series of violent attacks against the Jewish community and Jewish institutions, at a time of then-rising antisemitism,” the lawmakers wrote," stated Rep. Deutch. "We urged the administration to swiftly implement the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act to help prosecute antisemitic hate crimes and also to develop an inter-agency strategy to combat antisemitism and protect the American Jewish community from those rising attacks."However, citing FBI statistics, the lawmakers comment that antisemitic attacks are still on the rise, and the onus is on the Biden administration to respond.

“FBI hate crime statistics show that crimes targeting Jews comprise a majority of all religion-based hate crimes, even though Jews make up less than two percent of the population,” they explain, adding that “recent data from the Anti-Defamation League’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents tracked more than 2,700 reported antisemitic incidents throughout the U.S. in 2021 – the worst year for antisemitism ever recorded, with an average of over seven attacks per day.”

In sending the letter to Secretary Mayorkas, the lawmakers call for Mayorkas “to advocate for a comprehensive, whole-of-government strategy… to specifically address the growing problem of domestic antisemitism.” The effort would be led by the Department of Homeland Security to “ensure DHS and all its inter-agency partners are prioritizing this issue and tackling it with the urgency and coordination it warrants.”