The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, is facing criticism from Senate Republicans over his alleged use of a private email account to conduct official business. At a hearing on Tuesday, the secretary was also pressed on issues related to the security of the southern border and allegations that he has allowed antisemites to work in his department. 

Senator Marshall pressed the secretary on whether DHS employees have access to his personal contact information, including private email addresses and his cellphone number. While Mr. Mayorkas said he does not give out that information to his colleagues and subordinates, he refused to answer whether he uses encrypted messaging platforms to communicate about his official duties. 

“Senator, I follow the rules scrupulously,” Mr. Mayorkas responded when asked if he uses encrypted platforms. Mr. Marshall asked again if he ever used encrypted platforms, and Mr. Mayorkas repeated, “Senator, I follow the rules scrupulously.”

Earlier this year, a lawsuit from Americans for Prosperity uncovered 400 pages of communications that were sent to and by Mr. Mayorkas, including email and text messages to his private address and phone number. The lawsuit pointed out that it is DHS policy that “employees may not use non-DHS e-mail accounts to create or send email records that constitute DHS records.”

In July, Mr. Marshall sent a letter to the secretary asking for information related to his private communications, but Mr. Mayorkas failed to respond. 

Mr. Marshall pointed out that in 2021, Mr. Mayorkas testified to the Senate that if someone does “errantly” send official information to his personal email, he makes sure to forward the message to his work email so it is part of government records. After Mr. Marshall made that point, the secretary said, “What you’ve just articulated is perfect evidence of the fact that I have followed the rules.”

Mr. Mayorkas’s use of a private account — though he insists all of those records are known to the federal government — comes as President Biden is facing criticism, lawsuits, and investigations into his own use of private email addresses during his time as vice president.

A conservative organization, America First Legal, recently disclosed that Mr. Biden had sent tens of thousands of emails using pseudonyms and private email accounts to communicate with family and members of the Obama administration. 

Mr. Mayorkas also got into an heated exchange at the hearing with Senator Hawley, who pressed him on the department’s response to Hamas’s war against Israel. “Should students who are here — foreigners who are here in this country, accessing our university system and advocating for the killing of Jews — should they be allowed to stay here at their leisure?” the senator asked. The secretary simply said he would review the legality of such a move. 

Mr. Hawley also hammered the secretary for the action of a DHS adjudication officer, Nejwa Ali, who posted antisemitic vitriol on her personal Instagram account. She advocated for the abolition of Israel and said “f—” any Jewish person who supports the nation. She also posted a photo of a Hamas paraglider flying into Israel, writing underneath: “Free Palestine.” She has since been suspended from the department.

“To suggest that that is emblematic of the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security is despicable,” the secretary responded. 

Mr. Hawley immediately exploded at Mr. Mayorkas. “This person works for you,” he shouted. “Don’t come to this hearing room when Israel has been invaded and Jewish students are barricaded in libraries in this country and cannot be escorted because they are threatened for their lives. You have employees who are celebrating genocide, and you are saying it’s despicable for me to ask the question.”

Mr. Mayorkas then said that he cannot respond to an “ongoing personnel matter” within the department.