Mr. Holzer and his spouse own between $2,002 and $30,000 of stock in Palantir Technologies in their IRAs. Palantir is one of the larger contractors for the government’s surveillance state. This is certainly an odd relationship, and possibly a conflict of interest, for a ‘privacy officer.’
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U.S. Department of Homeland Security – May 2016 – Present; July 2009 – August 2015.
American Society of Access Professionals – February 2017 –November 2020.
Office of Government Information Services – August 2015 –May 2016.
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In 2022, Americans were horrified to learn of the BidenAdministration’s plans for a so-called “Disinformation Governance Board.” In a climate of big-tech censorship and collusionbetween government and social media platforms, this Orwellian sounding entity poseda potential threat to the free political speech of Americans unprecedented inrecent history.
According to publicly available emails, James Holzer was part of the team working on the Disinformation Governance Board. The email below show Holzer’s name highlighted as a recipient of emails relating to the Disinformation Governance Board:
(Note: Records released by DHS and posted to their website pursuant to FOIA requests.)
Holzer’s involvement with the disinformation governance board is concerning and shows that he is fully “with the program.”
In 2013, Americans were horrified by that April’s Boston Marathon bombing. Shortly thereafter, it emerged that two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, two central Asian immigrants with an Islamic background, emerged as the perpetrators.
The Boston Globe subsequently made a Freedom of Information Act request for the Tsarnaev brothers’ immigration records. In his position as the Chief FOIA officer at DHS, Mr. Holzer denied the Globe’s request.
On Tuesday, a Homeland Security official said he withheld the records based on an exemption in federal law that shields records or information "compiled for law enforcement purposes, the release of which could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings."
"I have determined that the records you have requested are part of an open and ongoing law enforcement investigation," James Holzer, senior director of FOIA operations for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a letter rejecting the request. "Accordingly, those documents are being withheld."
The government's refusal to release the files comes amid concerns that the FBI, and possibly other government agencies, missed critical warning signs or failed to share information before the April 15 bombing skilled three people and injured more than 260 near the finish line.
Last week, lawmakers expressed outrage at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing when Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis of Boston said federal agents never told local authorities they investigated Tamerlan Tsarnaev or that he traveled to the Dagestan region of Russia, home to several Islamic terrorist groups.
In letters to the Globe, Holzer did not elaborate on how the release of the brothers' civil immigration records could interfere with the criminal investigation, particularly in the case of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was killed April 19 following a shootout with police. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19,was captured that night and is in jail pending trial on bombing-related charges.
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The role of DHS in vetting people coming into the United States has come back into focus with recent disclosures of terrorist plots involving Afghan ‘refugees.’ Given this context, Mr. Holzer’s record of suppressing the immigration records of known terrorists is deeply troubling.
Mr. Holzer has made several posts to LinkedIn in support of various racial causes. This is especially troubling given that immigration enforcement invariably involves issues across various skin tones.
“Driving Change and anti-racism”
“Building a more diverse senior executive service”
“Equitable Data Working Group”
