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During a White House roundtable discussion, the homeland security secretary on Wednesday compared antifa to the notorious gang, the Gaza-based organization, the Iran-backed group and ISIS, describing the decentralized protesters “equally threatening” as officially recognized terror groups.

“They operate with the same complexity as Mara Salvatrucha, as the Tren de Aragua, as Isis, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them, they are just as dangerous,” Noem stated. “They have an agenda to destroy us, just like the other terrorists we’ve dealt with for many, many years.”

The discussion included conservative online reporters such as several prominent commentators and others who cover antifa protests.

Several organizations mentioned by the secretary – the Palestinian, Lebanese, and jihadist factions – are formally designated terrorist organizations that control territory, run armed branches, maintain command structures and have executed large-scale assaults such as bombings, kidnappings and assassinations.

Extremism experts have frequently characterized the anti-fascist movement, by contrast, as having no centralized leadership, formal membership or organizational structure, and it has generally been described by national authorities as a decentralized movement of campaigners who engage in protest activity, portions of which involve property destruction and street violence.

This meeting follows a presidential directive signed last month designating antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization”.

Days before the announcement, Joe Biggs who was convicted and then pardoned for his actions during the Capitol events posted on X: “Who is prepared to pursue anti-fascist activists? Since I am acquainted with several individuals.”