DHS Got Complaints of Racist Website Two Years Ago

The Homeland Security Department procurement specialist who moonlights running an anti-white and pro-violence website had prompted complaints as long as two years ago, though the department waited until Aug. 23 to place him on administrative leave, Government Executive has learned.

A longtime DHS employee who spoke on condition of anonymity said multiple employees had filed complaints with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection Joint Intake Center concerning the racially controversial activism of Ayo Kimathi, a senior contract and small business specialist employed by DHS since 2009.

Kimathi was exposed last month by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center as being the character called “the Irritated Genie,” who runs a site called “War is on the Horizon.” The center describes him as a “gay-bashing revenge-seeking black nationalist who advocates…. the mass murder of whites and the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of ‘black-skinned Uncle Tom race traitors.’ ”

Asked for a response, DHS Deputy Press Secretary Gillian M. Christensen said, “ICE does not comment on the existence or outcome of reports made to the Joint Intake Center unless the resolution results in some kind of criminal or other public administrative action. Generally, this is because the information reported and/or obtained through investigation may be law enforcement-sensitive or contain personal information protected by the Privacy Act.”

The Joint Intake Center is run by the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility and CBP’s Office of Internal Affairs. It probes allegations that, if true, would constitute violations of state or federal criminal law or jeopardize or undermine the agency’s ability to perform its mission, according to DHS. The center also works with the DHS inspector general and Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to review and assess complaints from employees about ICE agents involving race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender or disability; violations of due process; and possible breaches of the Violence Against Women Act.

The center prepares reports that may result in management action, according to a DHS fact sheet, but it does not communicate back to the complainant, reporting instead on aggregate trends.

Meanwhile, the Southern Poverty Law Center noted that DHS has removed Kimathi’s name from its online list of procurement specialists. The center challenged a DHS statement that Kimathi is not involved in procuring guns and ammunition. The center used the previous DHS and ICE webpage that listed Kimathi’s regularly procured items as including: “Armed security guard services; law enforcement services and products, such as hand restraints, handcuffs, guns and ammunition; detention and removal services, (a) detention services include temporary housing, food, clothing, guards, and transportation, (b) detainee removal transportation services including air charter flights; fugitive operational support that involves data analysis and analysis support services; information technology supplies and services, to include computers, security equipment, maintenance, software, and telecommunication; law enforcement training development; procurement and clerical support services and interpreter services.”