At the same time, past mistakes in prevention-based programs have been well documented, and a more proactive government approach must carefully consider potential risks to civil rights and liberties when designing programs to counter violent extremism of any ideological bent.54. Xs~_7^{$}UAe5u)haU8vP6179kqZ>95[6No4%OcE6:&v+ yz dataLayer.push({"event": "signup_submit", "form_detail":"enSubscribeFooter"}); %%EOF DHS has an uneven role in communicating threat information to the public. 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. About. %PDF-1.5 % We at U.S. The initiative should consider what changes might be needed in human capital and launch programs to realign the future workforce accordingly. The Department of Health Services (DHS) is one of the largest state agencies in Wisconsin, with an annual budget of roughly $15 billion and more than 6,300 employees. 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. It will also put the department and its workforce in a better position to focus on the needs that only DHS can meet given its flexible authorities and unique capacity to respond to a range of issues that fall between the gaps of responsibilities of other federal departments and agencies. 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. 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. Mara Rudman is the executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress. To meet the challenges of today, the Biden administration and Congress should reform the Department of Homeland Security around a mission that highlights safety and services alongside its traditional protecting roles. 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. A list of senior leaders at the Department. These have included allegations of using department resources to target, discriminate against, and detain and deport immigrants of color.30 Despite the documented patterns of abuse, this has yet to be remedied by Congress.31 Other DHS components, such as HSI, have authorities that overlap with other federal investigative agenciesauthorities the department interprets very broadly. Homeland Security Investigations. In this role, he leads more than 60,000 employees and ensures the advancement of the agency's mission, strategic objectives, and related Administration priorities. At the same time, DHS should step back from roles where it is neither needed nor best suited. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is responsible for delivering immigration services and benefits. 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. DHS must recognize that many serious challenges to Americas safety and security originate at home or are largely borderless by nature. A change in policies alone will not achieve the goal of building a fair, humane, and workable immigration system. Advisory panels and committees that provide advice and recommendations on mission-related topics from academic engagement to privacy. (^9ghW:P ;mV]M[_i Together, these efforts produced the most significant government reorganization since the National Security Act of 1947. Including disaster relief, DHSs budget was more than $88 billion last fiscal yeartriple its size 20 years ago and almost triple the DOJs annual budget of $32.4 billion last year.14. DHS has the potential to meet todays moment. Next, the report reimagines what it means to keep America secure in todays world and provides a new framework for rebalancing the departments focus toward new and emerging needs. In 2017 and with overwhelming bipartisan support, the House of Representatives passed H.R. Then, the Biden administration and Congress should work together to realign DHSs resources to support these strategic priorities and ensure they are carried out consistently with annual authorization legislation. A. 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. subscribe.submit(); At the same time, DHS must do a better job of ensuring that its programs are not discriminatory and including serious guardrails for civil liberties to prevent bias-based activities, such as its past targeting of Muslims and other communities of color. or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. 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. Elisa Massimino is a senior fellow with the National Security and International Policy team at at the Center. 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. DHS also plays a critical role in adjudicating immigration benefits and promoting naturalization, which are the primary functions of USCIS. 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,. FEMA declared an emergency and allowed Texans to apply for federal assistance for storm recovery,71 but a more proactive responsewith better cooperation at the state and local levelmight have prevented such severe destruction from occurring in the first place. DHS already plays an important role connecting federal entities and officials to their state, local, tribal, and territorial counterparts and has had success coordinating security and resilience efforts across the private and public sectors through Joint Terrorism Task Forces and other mechanisms. CAP believes that DHS should take a broader view of what it means to keep the nation secure. Meanwhile, with few exceptions, DHS has not yet found its stride in the conduct of its core responsibilities. Skip to main content. In achieving this recalibration toward a safety and services model, the two biggest components of CBPthe Office of Field Operations (OFO), staffing ports of entry, and the Border Patrol, securing the border between portsshould be merged into one integrated entity focused on border management. What America needs from DHS today, however, is different from when it was founded. dhs DHS . var onSuccessSubmitenSubscribeSlideUp = function() { DHSs role in countering terrorism and domestic extremism has never been clear or without controversy. Citizenship and Immigration Services and also held positions at Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Pepperdine University, Department of Homeland Security - Customs and Border Protection, The San Diego County District Attorney's Office, Christian Legal Aid of Los Angeles, Bentley, GRID . Organizational Chart See how the Department of Homeland Security and all of its component agencies are organized by exploring the Organizational Chart. Previously, Ries was senior adviser to HHSC's chief . Learn about our sister organization, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, an advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans. In each of the cases outlined below, there is another federal agency or office charged with a similar or identical mission that is better equipped to fulfill it or the current tasks do not fit todays needs. Yes No The organizational structure of the Department of Health and Human Services includes a Chief Executive Officer who is appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by a majority vote of the members of the Nebraska Legislature. Refocusing DHSs immigration activities on the provision of services to facilitate admission, with enforcement that supports that objective, will pay dividends for America by promoting family unity rather than family separation; ensuring American employers can more easily access a global workforce; enhancing the United States influence by streamlining access to the country for tourists and visitors from around the world; and restoring our identity as a generous nation that keeps the door open to those fleeing harm in their home countries. Chief Financial Officer - Robert Brock. 0 But meaningful change will also require headquarters-level prioritization and the establishment of new internal incentives to drive CBPs cultural evolution. USCG United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Field offices that manage disaster response and recovery in disaster locations. As then-nominee Alejandro Mayorkas argued in his confirmation hearing, DHS is and should be fundamentally, a department of partnerships.5 He is right. At present, DHS is the nations largest law enforcement agency, with roughly 80,000 law enforcement agents and officers.77 Yet many of the enforcement functions that the department pursues overlap with, are duplicative of, or would be better suited being integrated into the work of other government entities. Collections Infographics Keywords Intelligence Community Topics Homeland Security Enterprise Intelligence and Analysis Sign Up 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. Despite consensus among policymakers that the department could be far more effective,7 there is little agreement on how to fix it. The department has five divisions: Behavioral Health, Children and Family Services, Developmental Disabilities, Medicaid and Long-Term Care and Public Health. Service orientation and safety need not be in tension; the Coast Guard provides a good model for how the two can be well balanced within a single organization. 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. DHS could have played a larger role in responding to the severe winter storms that crippled the electrical grid in Texas in early 2021. DHS lacks those bureaucratic guardrails, and the consequences of weak constraints on DHS became particularly clear during the Trump administration. Citizenship and Immigration Services align our organizational structure to achieve the greatest efficiency and accomplish our mission. CBP focuses on keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the United States while facilitating lawful travel and trade. 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. A limited law and immigration enforcement role would focus DHS enforcement activities only on areas where they assist the support and services model and where other federal agencies and bureaucracies do not have a leading role to play. 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. Operational and Support Components hbbd``b`Z $mA7`9$~b`bdr CAP recommends that DHS components that are primarily or exclusively focused on enforcing federal laws should be transferred to other federal departments. 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. He is responsible for overseeing the organization's contracting functions with a focus on integrity and positive impact. 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. 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. 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. Mr. Price has more than two decades of federal law enforcement experience. Troy A. Miller is the Acting Commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). They lent us their time and expertise over the past six months to help shape our understanding of what the mission and value proposition of DHS should be in todays world in order to address the needs, challenges, and opportunities facing the nation and to develop and refine our recommendations. Recognizing that screening remains a key safety component, a better-managed system would increase the capacity of DHS to process and screen applicants for family, employment, and visitor visas; to reduce processing time and delays; and to provide more reliable and dignified services. Official websites use .gov The organizational chart for DHS suggests that the secretary and deputy secretary are responsible for overseeing 23 separate bureaus and agencies ranging in size from the Office of Public Affairs to the entire U.S. Coast Guard to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has 65,000 employees.41 Yet the resources for the secretary of DHS pale in comparison to those of other federal agencies: The State Departments Office of the Secretary had some $57 million for FY 2019 and 75 employees to oversee a bureaucracy of 70,000 personnel while DHSs had just $19 million for FY 2018 and 68 employees for a bureaucracy of 240,000.42 Studies by the Atlantic Council and the CNAS recently proposed the creation of an associate secretary position to improve coordination and management at the highest levels of the department.43 While more bureaucracy is not always the answer, the current secretarys office does not have the personnel, resources, or authority to effectively lead a department of DHSs size today. 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