In an interview Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned of a “very difficult threat landscape” in the wake of the New Orleans truck attack.
“We have not only the persistent threat of foreign terrorism — that, of course, created the Department of Homeland Security — but we have adverse nation-states, and for the past 10 years, we’ve seen a significant increase in what we term ‘homegrown violent extremism,'” Mayorkas told anchor George Stephanopoulos. “It is a very difficult threat landscape, and it is why that we as a community — not just the federal government, but state and local officials and residents — need to be alert to it and take the precautions necessary to avoid violence from occurring.”
Mayorkas emphasized that, despite immigration being the department’s “highest responsibility,” the New Orleans attack was unrelated to issues at the border.
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