More than 130 US Department of Homeland Security staff members urged President Joe Biden's administration to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in a letter addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last month and now obtained by CNN.
“We join our colleagues and peers on Capitol Hill, USAID, Department of State, and across the Executive Branch who have expressed similar concerns in urging the Biden Administration to call for an immediate ceasefire and cessation of hostilities,” the letter said.
The staffers were unnamed in the letter, which is dated November 22, 2023, but say they work for several federal agencies within the department including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The DHS workforce consists of more than 260,000 total employees, according to the department.
The staffers said they signed the letter anonymously “out of concern for personal safety and risk of professional repercussions.”
Those who signed the letter say they are “deeply troubled” by the department’s “messaging, recognition, support, and mourning” of Palestinians killed in Gaza. The letter also criticizes DHS for turning a “blind eye” to bombings in Gaza.
“DHS has been a silent witness to hunger affecting the Palestinians, as critical food supplies have reached ‘dangerously low levels,’” the letter states.
More context: There have been growing frustrations among staff members that work in the Biden administration over how the president has responded to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Earlier this week, a few dozen political appointees and Biden administration staffers held a vigil in front of the White House calling on Biden to support a ceasefire in Gaza.
“We have been horrified to see the full resumption of killings, displacement and bombardment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. A temporary pause to this violence was never enough. We must move with urgency to save as many lives as possible and achieve an immediate, permanent ceasefire agreement and the return of all hostages,” Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned in October over Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict, said at the vigil on behalf of the group that organized the event.
In November, more than 700 staffers and political appointees signed a letter calling on the president to support a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. That letter was signed by staffers who work in more than 30 departments and agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, FBI and NASA.
Mayorkas has not responded to it, but DHS officials did meet with the authors of that letter recently to discuss their concerns.
DHS has not responded to CNN’s inquiries to comment on this letter.
