Nejwa Ali, a former spokeswoman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) who the Department of Homeland Security hired and put in charge of vetting asylum seekers, was fired by the Trump administration in February after the Biden administration declined to do so for 14 months after she pledged her support for Hamas.

Former President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, removed Ali from duty on October 19, 2023, days after The Daily Wire documented her celebration of the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. But instead of firing her, Mayorkas continued to pay her, placing her on paid leave for an “investigation” even as she repeatedly and proudly affirmed her hatred of Jews and allegiance to the Palestinian cause, and used the paid leave to protest Israel during work hours.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told The Daily Wire this week that Ali was removed from federal service on February 10, meaning she received 16 months of salary without having to work.

Ali worked in 2016 and 2017 as a public affairs officer for the “PLO office in D.C,” according to her LinkedIn. That office was expelled from the country because it is a designated terror organization. But Ali landed on her feet, securing a job at DHS as an “Asylum Officer,” where she was tasked with “applying immigration laws and regulations to asylum applications.”

Ali posted incessantly about her affinity for the Palestinian cause on social media, with increasingly over-the-top rhetoric after the October 7 terror attack. The Daily Wire’s initial report on Ali highlighted how she repeatedly posted pictures of Hamas terrorists parachuting in with guns and writing, “F*** Israel and any Jew who supports Israel.”

READ MORE: The U.S. Gov’t Hired A Pro-Hamas PLO Spokeswoman To Handle Asylum Claims

Ali threatened to call the police on The Daily Wire for writing about her. Then, after the story ran, she said by phone: “I abso-f***ing-lutely celebrate [Palestinian terrorist hang-gliders], a**hole, f*** you!” The Daily Wire provided audio of that call to Mayorkas’s DHS.

In January 2023, Ali became an Adjudication Officer for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. People with that job, according to the agency, “analyze new or amended legislation and policy, prepare written reports of findings, and review and make determinations on cases for immigration benefits.”

The hiring — which initially occurred during the first Trump administration — suggested that not only were “asylum officers” not thoroughly vetting applicants to weed out fraudsters and terrorists, but even the screeners themselves were not vetted.

This month, DHS said that had changed: Citizenship and Immigration Services is now screening applicants’ social media for any evidence that “indicates an alien endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, anti-Semitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity as a negative factor in any USCIS discretionary analysis when adjudicating immigration benefit requests.”

And the Citizenship and Immigration Services screener whose own social media was a stream of such content was also fired — raising even more questions about why Mayorkas couldn’t or wouldn’t do it, despite Ali’s openness about her views.

Weeks after The Daily Wire’s expose, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) grilled Mayorkas about it at a hearing, saying “What about people who say things like, on October 7, ‘F*** Israel, the government and its military, are you ready for your downfall.’ People who say things like, ‘F*** Israel and any Jew who supports Israel. May your conscience haunt your dreams until your last breath, Palestine will be free one day, f*** apartheid Israel and any Israeli.’ … This person works for you. This is Nejwa Ali, an employee of the Department of Homeland Security who posted these comments on October the 7th. She also posted this graphic … a Hamas paraglider depicted here with a machine gun flying into Israel. She posted it under her online alias with the celebratory ‘free Palestine.’ What’s going on here? Is this typical of people who work at DHS? This is an asylum and immigration officer who is posting these frankly pro-genocidal slogans and images on the day Israelis are being slaughtered in their beds. What have you done about this?”

Mayorkas angrily refused to say why she was on paid leave instead of being fired, calling the question “despicable.”

Six months later, Mayorkas confirmed to the Senate that Ali was still on paid leave, even as she used her paid leave to protest in front of the Israeli Embassy during work hours, and to dox military members there.

Ali herself seemed shocked that Mayorkas hadn’t fired her, and gloated about the secretary’s inaction. When someone wrote on her LinkedIn page, “When you do everything you can to get fired but the boss says NO” she replied with a stream of laughing emotions and wrote, “hilarious, seriously.”

When someone posted that Ali “hasn’t yet been fired by” Mayorkas, Ali commented that she was “still laughing too. #freePalestine from APARTHEID Israel.”

Another LinkedIn user said, “Nejwa, as much as I believe in free speech and every American being entitled to develop and express their own opinion, tha [sic] ends when you’re a representative of the US and mpre [sic] implicitly, when dealing with immigration with the very people you are calling for total annihilation against.” Ali replied: “Listen white women, shut the F*** UP.”

In June 2024, the House of Representatives resorted to the extraordinary step of voting to make Ali’s salary $1, but it never became law. Democrats opposed the move, saying Ali should be afforded due process. They have not explained whether they think a form of due process that prevents firing for more than a year needs reform.

That same month the Center to Advance Security in America filed a lawsuit seeking records about how Ali was hired and how she handled asylum vetting after Mayorkas refused to fulfill the request.