Catholic Charities Increasingly Fear Stochastic Terrorism

I have posted before, here and here, about the Texas AG’s vote-generating harassment of a small Catholic Charity he blames for people pouring across the southern border.  I am not sure I am bothered more by the demonization for political purposes of civil society, or the larger nativist demonization of the poor migrants trying to survive.  You have heard me use the phrase stochastic terrorism too. The NY Times reported last Sunday that Catholic Charities are increasingly subjected to stochastic terrorism because of their charitable efforts assisting migrants:  

For decades, Catholic Charities and other faith-based organizations have played a crucial role helping federal authorities and local governments manage influxes of migrants. Their work has been funded with bipartisan support in Congress, even through the presidency of Donald J. Trump, who often vilified immigrants. 

Much like public officials who have faced increased threats to their security, employees of groups like Catholic Charities are now routinely targeted. In San Diego, the threats online spawned threats in real life, as supporters of Mr. O’Keefe started appearing at other Catholic Charities sites, according to Vino Pajanor, the chief executive of Catholic Charities San Diego. Private armed guards were posted at Catholic Charities facilities across the city, including at a shelter for homeless women and a center for Afghan refugees, after people, apparently prompted by Mr. O’Keefe’s posts, came searching for “smuggled” children.

In April, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, berated Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security secretary, for his past service on the board of HIAS, a refugee resettlement agency formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. She claimed that the group was “not only financing the invasion of the country, but also telling illegal aliens to vote in the United States elections.”

Last year, Representative Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin claimed during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that nongovernmental organizations working on the border “are complicit in the greatest human trafficking operation perhaps in the history of the world.”

The risk of such incendiary allegations is that they could spur threats like those against Catholic Charities, and worse, could instigate violence.  “When you have this kind of hateful rhetoric spreading, and those who are supposed to be trusted echoing it or egging it on, some people hear a call to action,” said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a professor at American University who studies extremism.

I think what Paxton, Taylor Green and Tiffany are doing constitutes stochastic terrorism against migrants and Catholic Charities.

darryll k. jones