DHS should reduce its counterterrorism investigative and intelligence analysis activities, as described below, and focus its efforts where it has unique responsibilities and authorities: managing the border, countering disinformation, countering violent white supremacy, and investing in evidence-based prevention approaches. Consistent with this emphasisand with the affirmative vision that CAP previously put forth of a more fair, humane, and workable immigration system that would rebalance immigration enforcementICE is primarily a law enforcement agency, and as such its responsibilities should be transferred out of DHS.87. ] Johan Hassel, Kate Donald, Laura Kilbury, 1 More Factors such as devastating hurricanes and droughts due to climate change, political unrest, and gang violence, especially in Central American countries, have translated to a high number of migrants, including large numbers of families and unaccompanied children, seeking asylum in the United States.47 Over the past several decades, every administration has struggled to manage this flow, and Congress failure to create a workable legal immigration system has turned asylum into the only viable avenue. If policymakers want to improve the work of DHS, they must start with a focus on todays homeland security needs, defining the departments role and identifying what value it should provide today. The Hypothermia Alert will be ACTIVATED at 7 PM, Tuesday, February 28, 2023. . Incident response is a role that DHS is well situated to lead, and by doing so, and doing so well, other federal agencies can leverage DHSs incident response capacity and avoid replication. Reform of the agencyand decisions about its future size and scope of responsibilitiesshould begin not with a catalog of DHSs deficiencies but rather with an analysis of Americas homeland security needs. The Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services provides leadership, coordination, and support to prevent, protect against, prepare for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate disasters and other emergencies. With appropriate oversight and respect for civil liberties, the department has tremendous potential to advance public safety and provide critical services. Atlantic Council, Former and Acting Secretaries of Homeland Security sign open letter on consolidating congressional jurisdiction over DHS., Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986, Public Law 433, 99th Congress, 2nd sess. Understanding these foundational issues and why they have not been effectively addressed is critical to articulating a new vision for DHSone that focuses headquarters limited attention on the right set of priorities. Learn about our sister organization, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, an advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans. Recalibrating DHSs activities to fit the safety and services model, consistent with acknowledging and addressing threats that impede safety and services, would create space for a new vision for DHS. To maximize its value and effectiveness in todays environment, DHS should organizeand articulate its missionaround connecting, communicating, facilitating, welcoming, and helping, in addition to protecting, securing, preventing, and enforcing. DHS has used its authorities in ways that have eroded already weak trust among swaths of the American population, particularly among marginalized communities. Title: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Organizational Chart Author: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Created Date: 4/11/2012 1:38:31 PM There is also a need for a more empowered and proactive agency that shares cyberthreat intelligence between businesses and government agencies, with the aim of helping organizations quickly identify and mitigate potential cyberincursions. While it is beyond the scope of this report to detail where every subcomponent within DHS belongs, components that are primarily focused on investigating violations of federal laws should most naturally live within the FBI, the lead agency charged with investigating criminal activity. There is no other department with DHSs range of flexible authorities and unique capacity to respond to these issues and others that fall between the gaps of responsibilities of other federal departments and agencies. It is time to reimagine what it means to keep America safe, secure, and prosperous in todays world and to recalibrate the priorities of the department charged with doing so. The Center for American Progress is an independent nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Budget - Tiffany Blair, Director. In a world where the public and private sectors must take independent action to ensure Americas safety and security, the government needs a trusted, effective mechanism to communicate threat information, including intelligence information, with the public and private sectors and between different levels of state, local, and federal government officials. endstream endobj 700 0 obj <>stream Choosing to focus DHSs prevention efforts where it can make unique contributions does not compromise U.S. security but rather helps ensure that the federal response is well coordinated and not duplicative. The current administration should work with the new secretary to empower the secretarys office and staff to better manage, delegate, and oversee responsibilities across the bureaucracy. Department leadership should work to clearly set limits on enforcement activities and constrain them appropriately to ensure past mistakes and abuses are not repeated and work with Congress to codify these restrictions. 2825, the Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act of 2017, which sought to reauthorize DHS for the first time since its creation.18 More recently in 2020, several House Democrats introduced H.R. DHS should play a leading role in responding to all emergencies that threaten the safety and security of Americans, even when the response will rely heavily upon expertise housed in other federal departmentssuch as the Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expertise that is critical to the pandemic responseor at the state level. Who we are The Minnesota Department of Human Services is an organization of individuals with a commitment to bettering the lives of Minnesotans. As CAP has previously argued, Congress and the administration can do more to empower the current DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL). Rudy deLeon is a senior fellow with the National Security and International Policy team at the Center. As part of reform efforts in 2006 after DHSs failed response to Hurricane Katrina, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) was established as an intelligence entity within DHS that would inform department operations and connect it to other federal intelligence efforts. The current administration should evaluate how much of this realignment can be done within existing statutory functions and what requires congressional assistance and legislation. DHS has an uneven role in communicating threat information to the public. But viewing immigration law violations, which are often civil in nature, through a punitive lens has resulted in a heavy-handed approach at the border and in the interior. Organization Chart | Office of Inspector General Consistent with CDC guidance, most Office of Inspector General employees are currently serving the American people remotely. (LockA locked padlock) Organization Organization The list of all Operational and Support Components that make up the Department along with our organization chart and the list of senior leadership. DHS should reduce its TOC efforts and transfer investigative leads and other TOC activities to the DOJ. The organization of DHS is in accordance with the Homeland Security Act, as modified by previous notices to Congress under Section 872 of the Homeland Security Act and by future legislative enactments. But meaningful change will also require headquarters-level prioritization and the establishment of new internal incentives to drive CBPs cultural evolution. As DHS as a whole intensifies focus on safety and service, law enforcement efforts should occur within this context rather than as the primary mission. Abolishing DHS and returning its components to where they came from is neither politically feasible nor wise, and giving DHS more resources and responsibility without substantive changes will do little to fix the departments underlying problems. DHS still has an important role to play in preventing attacks against the United States and Americans at home and abroad. CBP and the TSA are primarily focused on enabling the safe and secure movement of goods and people and have narrow law enforcement roles that enable these primary missions. Cybersecurity now demands a whole-of-government solution to protect national security, critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and sensitive personal information. The United States needs a proactive emergency preparedness and resilience capacity and a flexible and capable response system that can respond to a wide range of emergencies quickly and efficiently. In line with this new vision, CAP recommends that purely investigative and detention functions be moved out of DHS and transferred to other agencies, such as the FBI and the Bureau of Prisons, which are the federal lead for those functions. A lock DHS currently protects 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose networks and systems are deemed crucial to U.S. national security, economic security, and public health and safety, such as the critical manufacturing, communications, and energy sectors.70 These needs will only increase as digital connectivity plays a growing role in daily American life, particularly as the pandemic has forced many to work from home and increased everyones dependence on internet access. Most notably, DHSs vetting activitiesincluding the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), viewed by many as a Muslim registry29have faced persistent claims of religious and racial bias. Sarnata Reynolds, Caroline Medina, Molly Weston Williamson, Rachael Eisenberg, Brandon Tucker, Hadi Sedigh. DHS should prioritize efforts where it can add value, paying special attention to those needs that, in todays federal government, DHS is best positioned to meet. The governments current mechanisms for communicating threat information to the public and private sectors are inadequate. ET, Twitter, available at, These sectors include the chemical sector; commercial facilities; communications; critical manufacturing; dams; defense industrial base; emergency services; energy; financial services; food and agriculture; government facilities; health care and public health; information technology; nuclear records; materials and waste; transportation systems; and water and wastewater systems. Though it will be hard, the potential outcome would be well worth the effort; the entire system would start moving toward being more fair, humane, and workable. This study makes the case that DHS should be more active in the areas where it is the most effective player within the federal bureaucracy and less so where its efforts are duplicative of other agencies. In the absence of a clear and well-defined mission, DHS has too often tried to make itself a utility player on every issue, arguing that it has authorities and capabilities that others lack. CBP, under DHS, is charged with functions that range from countering terrorism, securing the border, and facilitating trade and travel. There are 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any . Recent examples include DHSs yearslong battle with the DOJ over which agency has the lead for transnational organized crime; tensions with the FBI and the IC over foreign influence and election interference roles and responsibilities;57 turf battles over cybersecurity jurisdiction between DHSs CISA and the National Security Agency;58 and persistent questions about the focus and utility of DHSs intelligence unit. At a minimum, your org structure should include employees' titles and basic hierarchies. See U.S. Agency for Global Media, Legislation: Facts About Smith-Mundt Modernization, available at, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Statement from CISA Director Krebs Following Final Day of Voting, Press release, November 4, 2020, available at, AllOnGeorgia, TSA Touting Success: 10 Million Pre-Check Enrollees, March 9, 2020, available at, American Civil Liberties Union, National Security Entry-Exit Registration System; American Civil Liberties Union, Secure Communities (S-COMM); Aarti Kohli, Peter L. Markowitz, and Lisa Chavez, Secure Communities by the Numbers: An Analysis of Demographics and Due Process (Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley Law School, 2011), available at, American Immigration Lawyers Association, Walled Off: How USCIS Has Closed Its Doors on Customers and Strayed from Its Statutory Customer Service Mission, February 12, 2021, available at, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Trade, available at, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5, available at, Lisa Fernandez, @ljfernandez, February 19, 2021, 3:45 p.m. Collections Internal Directives Strategy and Doctrinal Products Keywords Policy Topics Homeland Security Enterprise Last Updated: 01/10/2023 Was this page helpful? Or it might mean partnering with technology companies to thwart domestic extremist messaging on online platforms. DHS must recognize that many serious challenges to Americas safety and security originate at home or are largely borderless by nature. Without strengthened protections and an ethos committed to protecting all Americans equally, such sharing may do more harm than good. Recent steps announced by Speaker Pelosis office toward centralizing authority under the House Committee on Homeland Security by the current Congress are a welcome step but need to be further developed and have not been taken up by the Senate.85 Congress and the Biden administration should build on these important reforms to further consolidate and centralize oversight responsibilities and work toward passing an annual authorization for the department. Moving toward the safety and services model outlined in this report would allow DHS to calibrate its activities within a new mission maximally focused on delivering value to America. To avoid duplicating the leading role of the FBI and NCTC, DHS should reduce its investigative activities and narrow the focus of its counterterrorism intelligence analysis, as described more fully below. DHS also plays a critical role in adjudicating immigration benefits and promoting naturalization, which are the primary functions of USCIS. Some believe that long-standing foundational problems have inhibited DHSs effectiveness as its missions and focus have expanded and morphed. } See the organizational chart for the Department of Homeland Security. DHS should continue to facilitate lawful international trade and travel, ensure that U.S. transportation services are safe, and maintain U.S waterways and maritime resources. But there is no agency that currently leads the federal governments efforts at the national level to share information, advocate for greater government transparency, or develop new communications capacities that add value to the American people. But with shared objectives in gaining a more effective agency that can deliver for and to the American people, it can be done. Seizing the opportunity to reimagine what it means to keep America secure and recalibrate DHSs priorities accordingly would enable the department to refocus its efforts in areas where it can add unique value and ensure that the government fulfills its responsibility to guarantee the safety, security, and prosperity of all Americans and those who come to live, study, work, travel, and seek safety here. As is apparent from a quick glance at a DHS organizational chart, the department is involved in a broad range of activities and coordinates a massive workforce of more than 240,000 federal employees.55 In the 20 years since it was founded, DHSs broad authorities and short attention span have led to mission creep,56 with DHS assuming new missions and creating new programs that are untethered to any overarching strategic goal. This means, for example, dialing up DHSs focus on disaster relief and cybersecurity and dialing down its law enforcement focus, particularly where other government agencies have or should have primary responsibility. 696 0 obj <> endobj Necessary safeguards would need to be put in place to ensure that what immigration detention remains does not become wrapped up in the overall criminal carceral system. Advancing Racial Equity and Justice, Building an Economy for All, Restoring Social Trust in Democracy, Biden Administration, Foreign Policy, Immigration, National Security+4More. DHS has the potential to meet todays moment. Going forward, DHS should reorganize its activities around roles in connecting, communicating, facilitating, welcoming, and helpingin addition to a recalibrated role for protecting, securing, preventing, and enforcing. Border Security And with a clear intelligence mission, DHS can redouble its efforts as originally envisioned to facilitate the communication of threat information between the federal government, state and local authorities, and the private sector, while also ensuring that its intelligence activities are not beyond the scope of its authorities or redundant to activities conducted by other intelligence agencies. 8791, the Department of Homeland Security Reform Act of 2020 As Introduced by Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), available at, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, available at, Steve Vladeck and Benjamin Wittes, DHS Authorizes Domestic Surveillance to Protect Statues and Monuments, Lawfare, July 20, 2020, available at, Federal Register, Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records, September 18, 2017, available at, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Privacy Act of 1974; DHS/CBP-024 Intelligence Records System (CIRS) System of Records,, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, available at, U.S. National Archives, Executive Order 12333 United States intelligence activities, December 4, 1981, available at, Mitch Lortz, What is the All-Hazards Approach to Emergency Preparedness?, Everbridge, January 9, 2018, available at, For example, a 2010 fact sheet released a year after the bombing highlighted department reforms aimed at enhancing counterterrorism efforts and claimed, Protecting the United States from terrorism is the cornerstone of homeland security. Press Office, Department of Homeland Security 2010 Accomplishments & Reforms (Washington: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2010), available at, Nick Miroff, Trump shifting DHS focus from counterterrorism to immigration,, Kaveh Waddell, America Already Had a Muslim Registry,, Sari Horwitz and Jerry Markon, Racial profiling will still be allowed at airports, along border despite new policy,, American Civil Liberties Union, National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, available at, Carrie Cordero, Reforming the Department of Homeland Security Through Enhanced Oversight & Accountability (Washington: Center for a New American Security, 2020), available at, Richard Gonzales, ICE Detains Alleged Victim Of Domestic Abuse At Texas Courthouse, NPR, February 16, 2017, available at, American Civil Liberties Union, ICE and Border Patrol Abuses, available at, Ryan Brooks, ICE Deported A Survivor Of The El Paso Walmart Shooting Who Was Assisting In The Investigation, Her Lawyers Says, Buzzfeed News, January 30 2021, available at, Donald J. Mihalek, Congressional committee power erodes homeland security,, The Atlantic Council, The Future of DHS project: Time to reform Congressional oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, December 17, 2020, available at, Atlantic Council, Former and Acting Secretaries of Homeland Security sign open letter on consolidating congressional jurisdiction over DHS, Press release, November 9, 2020, available at, Carrie Cordero and Katrina Mulligan, Modernizing the Department of Homeland Security, Lawfare, December 9, 2020, available at, Office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Pelosi Announces Agreement on Committee Jurisdiction Regarding Department of Homeland Security, Press release, January 25, 2021, available at, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. , is charged with functions that range from countering terrorism, securing the border, and sensitive personal.... 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