A counter-extremism grant program funded and administered by the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security lacked transparency and deepened government mistrust among some minority communities it targeted, according to a report by FIJ grantee Julia Harte in The Nation magazine.
As Harte reports, two-thirds of the applications chosen by the Trump administration focused on immigrants or Muslims, mostly ignoring domestic terrorists and white supremacists. Several grant recipients did not disclose to participants that they were DHS-funded and targeting people deemed susceptible to violent extremism. While DHS officials and grantees said the projects funded sought to remove the barriers that exist between minority ethnic groups and law enforcement and local leaders, civil rights advocates say the programs bred more fear than trust.
You can read Harte’s full report, here.
Photo: Shabbir Patel, security director for a Chicago mosque, said a counter-extremism grant could have better protected his community if it had paid for systems to guard the building against intruders. CREDIT: Julia Harte