DHS is best suited to collect information that other agencies cannot, primarily at ports of entry, and use that information for intelligence purposes. At the same time, DHS should step back from roles where it is neither needed nor best suited. endstream
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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. %%EOF
Despite consensus among policymakers that the department could be far more effective,7 there is little agreement on how to fix it. A full list of supporters is available here. DHS should prioritize service and partnerships, connecting people in the United States to federal services and providing value to the American people and those who live, study, work, travel, or seek safety here. 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. 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. Moving forward, DHS should ensure that all agencies charged with transportation security and infrastructure maintenanceincluding the TSA but also the Coast Guard and CBPare charged with delivering safety and security to customers and contributing to the nations economic prosperity. DHS already plays a pivotal role in connecting nonfederal officials with their counterparts in the federal system and serves as the primary connection between state, local, tribal, and territorial officials and the federal government and its resources, as well as between the private and public sectors, including civil society organizations. 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. 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. Based on this study, CAP makes the following recommendations and guidelines for the administration and Congress to transform DHS into the safety and services department CAP proposes. To better serve Americans safety and security needs, DHS leadership should articulate a new framework of department activities that increases the emphasis on connecting, communicating, facilitating, welcoming, and helping through a safety and services model and recalibrate its emphasis on protecting, securing, preventing, and enforcing. Without such a mechanism, America lacks critical information on threats that could be mitigated, and the government is unable to enlist the capacity of American businesses and the American people in its threat response. Yes No The mission of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) is to equip the Homeland Security Enterprise with the timely intelligence and information it needs to keep the homeland safe, secure, and resilient. Katrina Mulligan is the acting vice president for National Security and International Policy at the Center. This would require new interpretations on current legal constraints in this area, 62 close collaboration with civil society groups to ensure communications do not violate civil rights and liberties or unfairly target vulnerable communities, as well as a more amplified role for the officer of civil rights and civil liberties. It recommends that DHS adopt a new safety and services model, outlined above, that increases its emphasis on connecting, communicating, facilitating, welcoming, and helping, while simultaneously recalibrating its focus on external threats by bringing its emphasis on protecting, securing, preventing, and enforcing into better balance with its other priorities. The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) helps provide essential services to Minnesota's most vulnerable residents. if(subscribe.checkValidity()) { This fractured structure makes it nearly impossible for DHS headquarters leaders to manage the department effectively or efficiently.36 CAP has joined the Atlantic Council and the CNAS in calling for consolidated oversight of DHS.37 In addition, six former secretaries and acting secretaries of homeland security recently signed a letter to congressional leadership calling for the House and Senate to consolidate congressional oversight of DHS in a single authorizing committeeas is done for other departments such as the Department of Defense.38 A more streamlined structure under one authorizing and one appropriating committeesuch as that governing the Pentagon post-Goldwater-Nichols reform, where oversight was centralized under the Armed Services committeeswould allow lawmakers to more effectively oversee the broad range of the departments activities and ensure they are properly balanced against the agencys overall priorities.39 The recent memorandum of understanding announced by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a welcome step toward improving oversight coordination among the various committees that have jurisdiction over DHS, but more work is needed to centralize authority under the Committee on Homeland Security in the House and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in the Senate.40. First, DHS should adopt a service-oriented approach to citizenship and immigration services that is welcoming to immigrants and the U.S. citizens and residents hoping to sponsor them. DHS should narrow the scope of its prevention activities to focus its efforts where DHS has sole or unique responsibilities such as in lawful screening and vetting of travelers and goods that cross U.S. borders, countering disinformation, and funding research into evidence-based approaches to preventing extremism. (^9ghW:P
;mV]M[_i With the State Department focused on messaging abroad, DHS could play the lead for countering disinformation domestically. Working as the Nations risk advisor, the CISA partners with the private and public sectors to defend against threats and build more secure and resilient infrastructure for the future.61 DHS should scale efforts being led by the CISA to prioritize partnership with stakeholders across its missions and priorities. An official website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This will also help reduce DHSs involvement in activities better left to other federal agencies that have more appropriate authorities, experience, and workforces, while ensuring that Americas security needs continue to be addressed by the federal government. Some law enforcement functions are compatible with a safety and services model at DHS. Operational and Support Components Leadership But with shared objectives in gaining a more effective agency that can deliver for and to the American people, it can be done. 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. In 2017 and with overwhelming bipartisan support, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 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. Organizational Chart See how the Department of Homeland Security and all of its component agencies are organized by exploring the Organizational Chart. These law enforcement roles enable the safety and services model to operate. Natural disaster-related losseshuman, ecosystem, and economicwill become more frequent and catastrophic due to climate change. DHS also plays a critical role in adjudicating immigration benefits and promoting naturalization, which are the primary functions of USCIS. Compared with executive branch agencies with longer histories and institutional protections and normssuch as the DOJ, founded in 1870, or the FBI, founded in 1908DHS lacks a history and culture of independence from political influence. DHS, primarily through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Coast Guard, is already the nations helper. DHS provides high-quality, affordable health care coverage and public health services to Wisconsin residents. Department of Human Services Organizational Chart. Without clear and streamlined oversight responsibilities, Congress lacks the ability to act in its appropriate legislative role to set and guide the departments priorities and activities. The . To bring its law enforcement and service provision roles into similar balance, CBP must understand and embrace its important role in providing service to asylum-seekers at the border. 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. As extreme weather events and changing environments become more common, DHS should quarterback incident response, leading coordination with state and local officials, leveraging its flexible and responsive capabilities, and drawing on capacity within other federal departments and agencies. With the premise that DHS should recalibrate toward a safety and services model, and that DHS should focus on the things that it is best capable of doing, this study distinguishes between two types of law enforcement functions: law enforcement functions that enable a safety and services model to operate and those for which law enforcement is the primary focus. 701 0 obj
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Monday, June 13, 2022. It also helps ensure that DHS capacity is aligned to where DHS has the most to contribute. 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. Advisory panels and committees that provide advice and recommendations on mission-related topics from academic engagement to privacy. As a result, DHS has not invested in building its capacity to respond to borderless threats, such as natural disasters and cyberattacks against government enterprises, and those, such as the growing threat from white supremacist violence, that originate within U.S. borders. DHS has used its authorities in ways that have eroded already weak trust among swaths of the American population, particularly among marginalized communities. Joel Martinez is the Mexico policy analyst for National Security and International Policy at the Center. It should invest its unique capacity to analyze and contextualize threats to land, sea, and air borders and ports of entry and to deliver intelligence to state, local, tribal, and territorial partners. Sign Up It also identifies opportunities to reform the factors that hinder DHS from being maximally effective in providing value to the nation. During the Trump administration, however, the focus of DHS shifted squarely toward heavy-handed enforcement designed to terminate access to the country for asylum-seekers.48 The Biden administration has taken a different approach to border management and is beginning to reverse policies and repair the damage made to the immigration and asylum systems during the Trump administration.49 However, many challenges persist and demonstrate the need for a reorientation of cultural norms at DHS. Alexandra Schmitt is a senior policy analyst on the National Security and International Policy team at the Center. While the department will continue its efforts to protect, secure, prevent, and enforce,4 CAP proposes a strategic shift to a safety and services framework for DHS that would bring the departments existing responsibilities into balance and realign its priorities around five new core values: connecting, communicating, facilitating, welcoming, and helping. And while I&A should redouble its efforts to facilitate the communication of threat information between partners, it should not conduct intelligence activities that are beyond the scope of its authorities. 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. The current administration and Congress will need to work together for longer-term changes to institutionalize reforms. HSI, within ICE, investigates transnational crime and threats and claims a role in nearly all criminal activity, even those only tangentially related to DHSs mission. Cybersecurity now demands a whole-of-government solution to protect national security, critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and sensitive personal information. 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