Senator, congressman want scrutiny for pro-Hamas student groups, complacent universities

As would-be terrorists cross America’s porous border, college students support the Hamas terror attack, and the federal government employs a virulent opponent of Israel, the U.S. Senate can’t even agree to condemn terrorism.

That’s the grim picture painted in an exclusive Heartlander interview with Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.

In just the past few days Hawley has:

• asked the Department of Justice to investigate possible Hamas funding of U.S. student groups expressing support for the terrorist organization;
• asked the Department of Homeland Security to address “Terrorist-Linked Aliens” at the border;
• and demanded DHS fire an employee that one news report characterizes as a venomous enemy of Israel – a former spokeswoman for the Palestine Liberation Organization whose work has actually included deciding asylum cases for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Hawley sought unanimous consent Thursday for a Senate resolution condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, as well as U.S. student groups’ support for it. The resolution also would unambiguously proclaim Israel’s right to defend itself.

The resolution was objected to and therefore blocked by Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.

“It’s hard to defend the indefensible,” Hawley posted on X. “Watch the Dems try.”

“There is no reason that the Senate should not condemn, clearly, this rhetoric against Israel, these calls for violence against Jewish people, these calls for genocide,” Hawley told The Heartlander before his resolution was thwarted. “That’s what it is – it’s a bunch of student groups all over the country saying, ‘It’s great that Jewish people are being killed. We love it. It’s great that babies are being beheaded. It’s great that Israel is being attacked.’ 

“This is insane, and it’s morally wrong and evil. We should call that out. And frankly, we ought to call on these university leaders. Where are they? Why can’t they come out and say that this is wrong? Why can’t they come out and condemn this?

“They love to shove their views down our throats on every possible issue. They tell us that we have to have men in women’s locker rooms and men playing women’s sports. They’re happy to talk about that. But they won’t talk about terrorists attacking the state of Israel and Jewish people all over the world? This is just nuts.”

Missouri U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, agrees – and has even floated the idea of revoking the offending universities’ tax-exempt status.

“To say I am disgusted by statements of support for Hamas that we’ve seen in recent days is an understatement,” Smith said in a statement. “Celebrating, excusing, or downplaying the horrific rape, torture, and murder of innocent people is the same thing as supporting violence, or even calling for it.

“Some organizations that have celebrated the unspeakable acts of terror that claimed the lives of 30 Americans and hundreds of Israeli men, women, and children currently enjoy tax-exempt status in the United States, and their statements call into question the academic or charitable missions they claim to pursue.

“University administrators, for example, have weaponized their institutions to attack speech and free inquiry as ‘violence,’ yet fail to condemn actual violence that threatens our way of life all while their institutions enjoy lucrative federal tax-exempt status.

“Congress and the American people will not forget on what side these institutions stood the day the largest number of Jewish people were killed since the Holocaust, and they must be held to account for their implicit, vile support of Hamas terrorists and violence against the people of Israel.”

As for the DHS employee Hawley is demanding be fired, identified as Nejwa Ali, The Daily Wire reports:

She has posted extremist rhetoric continuously to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for years – rhetoric that intensified this month as Palestinian terrorists murdered over 1,000 Jews on October 7 and Ali cheered. “F*** Israel, the government, and its military. Are you ready for your downfall?” she wrote on Instagram after the attacks.

According to her social media profiles – which say she is “American born, Palestinian @ heart” – Ali is from Dearborn, Michigan, a hotbed of unassimilated immigrants where thousands reportedly took to the streets in support of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.

Ali has made several posts glorifying the terrorist attacks on Israel, including one depicting armed terrorists paragliding into the Jewish state with the caption, “Free PALESTINE.”

Is DHS not aware of those alleged views of hers?

“You know, I don’t know what the answer is,” Hawley says, “but we’re going to get the answers. I have asked the Homeland Security chief to report back immediately as to how this person, who is a pro-Hamas pro-terrorism, rabid anti-Semite, how did she get the job in the Biden administration? And get this: she was deciding asylum claims, deciding what refugees come to this country or not. 

“Imagine the possibilities there. We need to know what claims did she adjudicate, who she let in or not. And how in the world does she keep her job? She still hasn’t been fired, by the way; she still works for the government. She still works for this administration. This is outrageous. She needs to be fired immediately and we need to find out what she’s been doing.”

Will more Americans learn of her malevolent views toward Israel?

“Oh, I hope so,” Hawley says. “You look at what she posted on social media celebrating the paragliders who came into Israel and shot down civilians in cold blood, celebrating the attacks against children, celebrating going door to door and shooting Jewish people in their homes. This person was on our payroll – I want to be clear – on the payroll of the federal government deciding asylum claims with your money, your taxpayer money, working for the Biden administration. I mean, come on, this is unbelievable.”

Regarding the open border, Hawley says there have been record numbers of encounters with individuals on the terror watch list – an ominous indication anytime, but certainly when the civilized world is on alert for jihadist attacks in the wake of Oct. 7.

“This is a huge security threat,” he says. “We have no idea who may be crossing into this country – other than that we know for sure terrorist groups and terrorist-affiliated individuals are trying to get in, I’m sure having success. How could they not have success? Joe Biden has opened the border. 

“So, listen, the president already has a lot to explain here about why he gave Iran, a terrorist nation, $6 billion, why he’s given hundreds of millions to the Palestinian leadership who are also supporting terrorism – and now our border is open to potential terrorists. This is a major threat to the American people.”

Will the Department of Homeland Security heed Hawley’s warning about terrorists seeping over the border?

“I doubt it,” Hawley responds. “DHS’s policy is apparently, put pro-terrorist people on your payroll, open up the border, let anybody across who wants to, and then just see what happens. I hope it doesn’t take a terrorist attack in this country for them to realize that the American people deserve to be safe.

“They shouldn’t have to beg to have the laws enforced in this nation. But Joe Biden, he is flouting the law and he is endangering Americans.”