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. Since the creation of DHS, challenges related to the foundations of the department and its operations have inhibited its performance. The Office of the Secretary oversees DHSs work to enhance security, protect cyberspace, administer immigration and respond to disasters. A clear structure allows every team member to be involved. A lock 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. He is responsible for overseeing the organization's contracting functions with a focus on integrity and positive impact. Border Patrol agents, for example, would be focused on addressing border issues rather than being deployed in places such as Portland as Federal Protective Service (FPS) personnel. HHS Organizational Charts Office of Secretary and Divisions Select an office to see its organizational chart. Leadership Director Congressional Relations Diversity and Civil Rights Firearms and Tactical Programs Immigration Program Evaluation Partnership and Engagement Regulatory Affairs and Policy Public Affairs Deputy Director Chief of Staff Directorates An organizational structure is the allocation of authority and responsibility within a company. I&A should reduce or eliminate its efforts to provide strategic intelligence on counterterrorism trends that are well covered by other departments and agencies. Learn about our sister organization, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, an advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans. Second, DHS should recalibrate its activities at the border to emphasize efficient and secure management of the flow of goods and people while welcoming asylum-seekers with a safe, legal, and orderly process for them to seek refuge in America; to rehabilitate its relationships in border communities; and to work to create a vibrant border region.67. Chief Accountability Officer, Gary Kramer. Six former secretaries and acting secretaries of DHS recently advocated for consolidation under a single authorizing committee in each chamber, warning that achieving other needed reforms to the department is not possible with fragmented jurisdiction.83 Congressionally driven efforts to improve oversight coordination, such as the Goldwater-Nichols reforms of the Pentagon,84 significantly improved that departments functioning and enabled better oversight to secure U.S. national interests. DHS could become the lead for communicating threat information to the public, such as intelligence on threats to critical infrastructure, and could expand its capacity to work with law enforcement and intelligence agencies to appropriately protect sensitive intelligence while disclosing information necessary to enlist the private sector and the American people in protecting the nation. Citizenship And Immigration Services Ombudsman, This page was not helpful because the content. Todays digital environment means that our critical infrastructure is more connected and more dependent on functioning cybersecurity than ever. Establishing the protection of civil liberties and privacy as a core DHS mission would fill a critical gap in executive branch roles that is not currently being comprehensively addressed by other departments and agencies. Elisa Massimino is a senior fellow with the National Security and International Policy team at at the Center. False and damaging disinformation about the security of the 2020 general election caused millions of Americans to question the election results and led to a violent attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. This helping mission would also naturally fit with DHSs existing role as a connector between federal resources and state and local authorities, which must work closely together during disaster management response and relief efforts. 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. 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 DHS approaches its 20-year mark, the United States has an opportunity to redefine the departments value proposition for the future and to better align DHSs structure and activities with its mission. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is the principal investigative component of DHS and is responsible for investigating, disrupting, and dismantling transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and terrorist networks that threaten or seek to exploit the customs and immigration laws of the United States. DHS officials should conduct a human capital needs assessment, properly screen individuals with ties to extremist groups, and ensure department personnel receive adequate training before they are sent into the field. Here's how you know Soon thereafter, Congress also put the wheels in motion to stand up a new center for countering terrorism. Critical Infrastructure Sectors. About. Welcome Patrol: how some border agents are struggling with Bidens policy shift, Reuters, May 14, 2021, available at, Most policymakers would likely be surprised to find out that the Border Patrol considers itself primarily in the business of preventing the entry of terrorist and terrorist weapons from entering the United States between official ports of entry, whereas the Office of Field Operations, in its own estimation, has a more balanced mission, responsible for border securityincluding anti-terrorism, immigration, anti-smuggling, trade compliance, and agriculture protectionwhile simultaneously facilitating the lawful trade and travel at U.S. ports of entry that is critical to our Nations economy. See U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Executive Assistant Commissioners Offices, available at, Ron Nixon, Department Commandant Lays Out Coast Guards Successes and Challenges,, For example, the ACLU has documented CBPs interpretation of its authority to operate within 100 miles of any external boundary as key to documented abuses: In practice, Border Patrol agents routinely ignore or misunderstand the limits of their legal authority in the course of individual stops, resulting in violations of the constitutional rights of innocent people. See ACLU, The Constitution in the 100-Mile Border Zone, available at, Andrew Crespo, Unpacking DHSs Troubling Explanation of the Portland Van Video, Lawfare, July 25, 2020, available at, Office of Inspector General, DHS Lacks Oversight of Component Use of Force (Redacted) (Washington: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2017), available at, Congressional Research Service, National Special Security Events: Fact Sheet (Washington: 2021), available at, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICEs Mission, available at, See, for example, Peter L. Markowitz, A New Paradigm for Humane and Effective Immigration Enforcement (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2020), available at, Matt Zapotosky and Chico Harlan, Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons,. The Biden administration should also work with Congress to significantly increase resources in future appropriations toward the secretarys front office to be more commensurate with the bureaucracys size and scope, ideally through reallocations within the existing budget. An official website of the United States government. Homeland Security Investigations. 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. CAP also recognizes that the safety and services framework proposed will, in many areas, be enabled by the departments threat management capabilities. Understanding the opportunities DHS has today is critical to transforming the agency to better meet unfulfilled needs around Americans safety and security, to address the issues that emerged or significantly worsened during the past four years, and to focus attention on the right set of priorities for the department going forward. These efforts have been at some times political and at other times reactive rather than grounded in a clear articulation of DHSs role within the federal bureaucracy. For example, CBP could greatly benefit from specialized training of its Border Patrol agents to initiate a cultural change of its workforce and prepare them to handle asylum-seekers at the border humanely and fairly. Previously, Ries was senior adviser to HHSC's chief . Another challenge that has affected DHS from the outsetand grew increasingly problematic during the Trump administrationis that it was given broad and at times unclear legal authorities that it has used in ways that have harmed the public it is supposed to serve. 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. The recent SolarWinds hack affected an estimated 18,000 government and private computers at the departments of Justice, State, Treasury, Energy, and Commercean alarming national security attack perpetrated by the Russian government.50 One of the notable successes from the Trump administrations DHS was that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) carved out a clear and useful role for itself as the Nations risk advisor, working with partners to defend against todays threats and collaborating to build more secure and resilient infrastructure for the future.51 There is a clear need for further developing the U.S. response by expanding the indicators and mechanisms for sharing cyberthreat information. Though the independence of the DOJ and FBI has been tested in the pastduring the J. Edgar Hoover era at the FBI, for example, and across the DOJ during the past four yearsrich institutional memory supported by decades of oversight at these other law enforcement agencies has resulted in unambiguous statutory authorities and well-established norms that have helped these institutions withstand politicization and guide department behavior. But it is time for DHS to focus on the missions and activities that it is uniquely capable of carrying out, and for which it, rather than other agencies, is the natural lead. Paul C. Light, The true size of government is nearing a record high, Brookings Institution, October 7, 2020, available at, Joshua Breisblatt, Spike in Corruption Followed Last Hiring Surge at CBP and ICE, Immigration Impact, April 25, 2017, available at, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, About CISA., To ensure the government does not inappropriately influence U.S. public opinion and discourse, Congress needs to strengthen its oversight and laws outlawing domestic government propaganda (currently articulated under the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012). 8719, the DHS Reform Act of 2020, in response to perceived abuses of DHSs authorities during the Trump administration.19 Congress never passed either bill, however, and congressional oversight remains divided and largely ineffective at setting overall priorities for the department. There is no other department better suited to coordinate effective federal emergency response; communicate threat information between the public and private sectors; provide a working, humane approach to border management; facilitate an integrated cybersecurity and infrastructure capacity; and implement effective approaches to counter the threats from domestic extremism fueled by white supremacy and the rise of anti-government militias. Working to recruit and train CBP agents with the tools to excel at working with populations seeking protection will help create the foundations for a shift in cultural norms. 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. Some law enforcement functions are compatible with a safety and services model at DHS. It would also provide a framework through which officials could then turn to reforming the structure of DHS, to determine which elements of the agency need to stay within DHS and which may better fit within other parts of the bureaucracy. Meanwhile, DHS is missing opportunities to meet needs that other departments and agencies cannot and opportunities to lead where DHSs unique strengths would be maximally effective in solving problems. DHS, primarily through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Coast Guard, is already the nations helper. Federal emergencies will continue to pose significant threats to Americans and their way of life. 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. DHS also suffers from low employee morale and poor satisfaction among its workforce: It ranked dead last among U.S. federal agencies in the most recent survey conducted by the Partnership for Public Service and has consistently been at the bottom of the list since 2010.44 While there are many reasons for low employee morale at DHS, the workforce culture is especially toxic within certain agencies that have overly politicized activities.45 ICE and the Border Patrol under the Trump administration, for example, focused on maximizing arrests and deportations with few limits on the targets for enforcement actions or the methods they would employthe clearest example being the Trump administrations cruel family separation policy.46 Personnel asked to pursue these political objectivesmost of whom are career public servantshave been required to perform deeply unpopular enforcement tasks that have not advanced sensible law enforcement or public safety priorities and have subjected them to sharp public criticism. , be enabled by the departments threat management capabilities at DHS at DHS security and International team. 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