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Letter to the NY Times Regarding Homegrown Terrorism

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The following letter was submitted to The New York Times in response to "White House Tries to Link Immigration and Terrorism" (Jan. 17)

Letters to the Editor
New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “White House Tries to Link Immigration and Terrorism” (news article, Jan. 17):

The Trump administration’s report trying to link foreign-born immigrants to terrorism muddies the waters by giving an incomplete picture of the sources of extremist violence in America.

New data from the Anti-Defamation League confirms that over the last decade, native-born white supremacists and others identifying with far-right movements have been responsible for the vast majority of extremist-related murders in the United States.

More than 70 percent of all extremist-related killings in those years were linked to domestic right-wing extremists, while 26 percent of the killings were committed by Islamic extremists. And last year, in the heated political environment that led to Charlottesville, Va., deaths caused by white supremacists doubled year over year. Right-wing extremists were directly responsible for 20 of the total 34 extremist-related murders in 2017.

While the federal government builds walls and pours more resources into fighting the violent threat posed by foreign extremists, less attention is being paid to the reality of right-wing violence.

Jonathan A. Greenblatt
Chief Executive and National Director of the Anti-Defamation League