Amid Hamas-Israeli violence, AG Garland warns in Miami of rising hate-crime threats
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland paid a rare visit to Miami on Thursday to champion partnerships in fighting violent crime, warning in particular about the “potential threats of hate-fueled violence and terrorism” in the United States in the wake of Hamas’ deadly assaults on Israel this month.
“Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel have created understandable fear among communities across the country,” Garland told a group of local, state and federal law enforcement officials at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami. “As the FBI has noted, we’re seeing an increase in reported threats against faith communities, particularly Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities and institutions.”
Garland said he has directed the nation’s 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices and the FBI to work closely with local law enforcement officials to focus on potential hate crimes and to reach out to religious organizations.
Garland said such partnerships “are at the center of our efforts to keep our country and our communities safe,” noting a recent federal crackdown on the “trafficking of fentanyl, the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced.”
Earlier this month, Garland and other Justice Department officials unveiled eight Florida indictments, accusing China-based companies and employees of shipping fentanyl chemical ingredients to Mexico and the United States where they were used to produce the synthetic opioid — the leading cause of drug deaths in America with more than 100,000 over a one-year period.
The latest charges followed a U.S. government initiative launched this summer to target Chinese companies that are supplying fentanyl chemical “precursors” to foreign countries for the manufacturing of the deadly drug, which is 50 times more powerful than heroin and also can kill an adult with a dose as little as two milligrams.
“That case is just one example of how we are going after every link in the cartel-driven fentanyl trafficking networks,” Garland told the group on Thursday.
Following his statements, Garland met privately around a conference table at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami with the regional heads of the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration and Florida Department of Law Enforcement, along with police chiefs from Miami-Dade County, Miami Gardens and North Miami, among others.
Earlier Thursday, Garland delivered a similar message about the importance of crime-fighting partnerships at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Jacksonville. But he also unveiled some news.
Garland announced that the Justice Department has collected $107 million from financial institutions, including from Ameris Bank, which have been accused of discriminatory loan practices in minority communities — millions that will go towards providing relief for those denied credit services for home ownership.
Garland made the announcement as part of the department’s Combating Redlining Initiative, spotlighting a $9 million agreement with Ameris Bank filed Thursday in federal court to resolve allegations that the Atlanta-based financial institution engaged in “a pattern or practice of redlining predominately Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Jacksonville.”
Redlining is an illegal practice, Garland noted, in which lenders avoid providing credit services to people living in minority communities because of their race, color or national origin.
“Discrimination in lending has its roots in nearly century-old government programs that denied Black Americans access to credit services to obtain home ownership,” he said.
“But as today’s case makes clear, redlining is not just a relic of the past,” he said. “Indeed, some of the neighborhoods that we allege Ameris redlined are some of the same neighborhoods that federal agencies originally redlined in the 1930s.”
Since 2021, the Justice Department has secured 10 settlement agreements with banks and mortgage lending institutions to provide credit opportunities to communities of color in Houston, Memphis, Philadelphia, Camden, Wilmington, Newark, Los Angeles, Columbus, Tulsa, Rhode Island, and now Jacksonville.
This story was originally published October 19, 2023 at 5:36 PM.
