Washington, DC – Greater than 100 employees members from america Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) have signed an open letter to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas denouncing the division’s dealing with of the battle in Gaza.
The letter, completely obtained by Al Jazeera, expresses frustration with the “palpable, obtrusive absence within the Division’s messaging” of “recognition, assist, and mourning” for the greater than 18,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza because the begin of the battle on October 7.
“The grave humanitarian disaster in Gaza and the situations within the West Financial institution are circumstances that the Division would typically reply to in numerous methods,” the letter, dated November 22, mentioned.
“But DHS management has seemingly turned a blind eye to the bombing of refugee camps, hospitals, ambulances, and civilians.”
The letter’s signatories embody 139 employees members from DHS and the companies it manages, like 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 “elected to signal this letter anonymously” for worry of backlash, the doc defined. It referred to as for DHS to “present a good and balanced illustration of the state of affairs, and permit for respectful expression with out the worry {of professional} repercussions”.
DHS didn’t reply to Al Jazeera’s request for remark by the point of publication.
The letter is the newest indication of fractures throughout the administration of President Joe Biden, who has faced inside criticism for his authorities’s stance on the Gaza battle.
Final month, greater than 500 officers from 40 authorities companies issued an nameless letter pushing Biden to name for a right away ceasefire in Gaza. Another letter, signed by 1,000 staff from the US Company for Worldwide Growth (USAID), expressed an identical attraction.
However Biden has been reluctant to criticise Israel’s ongoing army offensive in Gaza, as an alternative pledging his “rock strong and unwavering” assist for the longtime US ally.
In an inside message on November 2, Mayorkas echoed Biden’s stance. He denounced the “horrific 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 impacts [of October 7] proceed to comb by Jewish, Arab American, Muslim and different communities in all places,” Mayorkas wrote.
“I’m heartened understanding that our Division is on the entrance traces of defending our communities from antisemitism, Islamophobia, and different types of bigotry and hate.”
However two DHS employees members who spoke to Al Jazeera on the situation of anonymity felt that division management must be going additional to deal with the mounting dying toll in Gaza, the place civilians stay below Israeli siege.
United Nations experts have already warned of a “grave threat of genocide” within the territory, as provides run low and bombs proceed to fall.
“I’ve been very devoted to the federal authorities,” one nameless DHS official mentioned. “I’ve served in several capacities. I very a lot believed in our mission.
“After which, after October 7, I really feel like there has simply been a drastic shift on this expectation of what we’re purported to do when there’s a humanitarian disaster and what we’re really doing when there’s politics concerned, and that has a really, very scary, chilling influence.”
The employees’s open letter requires DHS to take actions in Gaza “commensurate with previous responses to humanitarian tragedies”, together with by the creation of a humanitarian parole programme for Palestinians within the territory.
That might permit them to quickly enter the US “based mostly on pressing humanitarian or vital public profit causes”.
The letter additionally pushed DHS to designate residents of the Palestinian territories eligible for “temporary protected status” or TPS. That might allow Palestinians already within the US to stay within the nation and qualify for employment authorisation.
Such programmes have been put in place for different conflicts, including for Ukrainians dealing with full-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.
![Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Joe Biden stand behind wooden podiums and in front of Ukrainian and US flags in a press conference at the White House.](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/AP23346804933898-1702437309.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513)
However one of many nameless DHS officers who spoke with Al Jazeera mentioned that, though there was dialogue a couple of doable TPS designation, motion appears unlikely.
“There have been a whole lot of critical systemic and programmatic obstacles pushed purely by politics,” she mentioned.
A part of the problem is that the US doesn’t recognise Palestine as a overseas state, placing its eligibility for TPS doubtful.
“We don’t recognise Palestine as a state. We don’t code them with that,” the DHS official defined. “And that’s one thing throughout Customs and Border Safety, ICE and USCIS. There have simply been obstacles raised on the highest ranges of these companies.”
The official suspects she is aware of why. “They’re apprehensive about their very own operations when it comes to eradicating or deporting folks to Gaza and the West Financial institution, in the event that they have been to vary these codes.”
However that inaction has levied a steep toll on staff’ psychological well being, based on 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 convey their relations to security.
The opposite, a senior employees member who has spent greater than a decade working for the federal authorities, described having nightmares of shedding his personal youngsters.
He mentioned he wakes up “with the information that we’re not really doing all that we are able to to supply programmes and reduction for the Palestinians”.
“It’s undoubtedly distressing and dispiriting to really feel like, for political concerns, we’re not addressing [the conflict] in the identical approach that we might different earlier, latest humanitarian crises, as an illustration, like Ukraine.”
![An aerial view of the damage and rubble after an Israeli air strike on houses in southern Gaza.](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2023-12-12T174118Z_1771912852_RC2QV4ADES8Z_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-GAZA-DAMAGE-1702437448.jpg?resize=770%2C505)
The senior official voiced dismay that Biden’s immigration policies have remained similar to that of his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
Biden has confronted stress to restrict the variety of arrivals within the US, notably as migration throughout the US-Mexico border spikes.
“The difficulty is, truthfully, that the Biden administration has been actually tepid about transferring too far in entrance on immigration and is concentrated virtually fully on the southern border and the way that impacts the administration politically. That has knowledgeable a whole lot of the decision-making with respect to new programmes,” the official mentioned.
That tepidness has left lots of the nameless DHS officers feeling demoralised, questioning their sense of mission.
“We have now the flexibility to do something, one thing, and we’re simply not,” one of many officers mentioned.