WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, sent a letter Dec. 17 to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem calling on the Coast Guard to immediately abandon a policy change that made certain displays, such as swastikas and nooses, no longer classified as hate symbols.

After originally stating in a November 20 memo that such symbols would remain prohibited, recent reporting indicates that the Coast Guard has implemented a policy that downgrades these symbols from hate symbols to “potentially divisive", according to a Dec. 17 news release from Collins' office.

“The U.S. Coast Guard’s decision to categorize swastikas and other Nazi symbols as merely ‘potentially divisive’ is an affront to the memory of the millions of Jews murdered during World War II and the Allied Forces who fought, and in many cases died, to liberate Europe from the Nazi regime,” Senator Collins wrote, in her letter to Noem. “The symbols and images associated with Nazism are blatantly antisemitic and employed by criminals to express hatred toward Jewish individuals and racial minorities.

“Antisemitic attacks against the Jewish community have risen in this country and worldwide since the violent terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. The Anti-Defamation League reported that in the three months following the attack, antisemitic incidents in the U.S. skyrocketed by 361 percent. Prior to the October 7 attacks, hate crimes against the Jewish community were already on the rise. According to data from the Department of Justice (DOJ), in 2023, of 2,699 reported hate crime incidents based on religion, more than half of these (1,832) were driven by anti-Jewish bias.

“The U.S. Coast Guard should be adopting policies to assist with the quick and lawful removal of divisive symbols, and any ambiguity about the Coast Guard’s intent should be immediately rectified and reflected in its policy. The U.S. Coast Guard should be clear: the display of Nazi iconography, symbols of racial bigotry and intimidation, and any hate-motivated representations will not be tolerated,” Senator Collins concluded.

The complete text of the letter is available here.