WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin is asking the Biden administration to change how they classify white supremacists overseas.
If the request is honored, it could mean big changes for national security.
Slotkin, a Democrat who represents Michigan's Eighth District, wants the Biden administration to start classifying white supremacist groups overseas as terrorists.
The move would mean the U.S. would dedicate more resources to tracking these groups.
National security experts like J.J. Green say there are many white supremacist groups operating all over the world and many have connections here in the United States.
Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who sits on a House committee devoted to keeping an eye on intelligence and counter-terrorism, requested that 13 neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups be labeled as "foreign terrorist organizations."
“The movement that’s taking place right now that we see the Proud Boys and The Boogaloo Boys and many other groups that are organizing and essentially pushing this separatist, white supremacist ideology this is not new but it’s a new take on it. Because one of the things these groups are doing is they are changing their look to appear a bit more mainstream," said Green, the national security correspondent at WTOP radio outside Washington, D.C.
Green says one new twist is that these groups are now targeting gamers because they are online and more prone to become radicalized.
Its unclear at this point if the administration will do what Slotkin is asking but one top official within the Department of Homeland Security has publicly said domestic extremist groups pose a great risk to national security.
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