dhs DHS . CISA is one of DHSs most visible success stories. To maximize its value and effectiveness in today's environment, DHS should organizeand articulate its missionaround a balanced set of activities that prioritize safety and services roles more. Whether leading the federal response or coordinating other federal players, local governments, and nongovernmental organizations, the United States needs an agency charged with emergency preparedness and response capabilities that serves as the lead coordinator of U.S. government emergency preparedness and response efforts on the wide range of emergencies that affect the country. Moreover, a dedicated, proactive focus on helping the public may provide a useful shift in DHSs public perceptionsomething sorely needed after the enforcement-heavy reputation it acquired during the Trump administration. By fully realizing the role envisioned for the secretary of DHS in Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5enhancing the ability of the United States to manage domestic incidents by establishing a single comprehensive national incident management system68as the principal federal official for domestic incident management, DHS can serve as a force multiplier for the rest of the federal government and use its institutional memory to improve Americas resilience to anything that humankind or nature throws its way. Renewing the DHS workforce also is critical to the departments long-term success. And new findings reveal other factors hindering DHSs performance which have dramatically worsened over the past few years, pointing to additional challenges for DHS that should be addressed. These agenciesespecially CBP and ICEcenter their focus and activities around the law enforcement aspects of their functions. Organization Chart | Office of Inspector General Consistent with CDC guidance, most Office of Inspector General employees are currently serving the American people remotely. In recommending this shift, CAP acknowledges that threats to Americans safety and security will continue to require a strong and coordinated response from DHS. Despite maintaining an intelligence records system and collecting, aggregating, and storing information on millions of individuals, including U.S. persons, HSI is not an intelligence agency.25 Yet it is collecting, analyzing, and storing information in ways that have previously been the exclusive domain of the IC. A member of the IC, it is charged statutorily with delivering intelligence to state, local, tribal, and territorial officials, as well as private sector partners, and with developing intelligence from those partners for DHS and the IC.20 The under secretary of I&A is also the chief intelligence officer of the department, overseeing the intelligence activities of the various DHS component agencies. The Center for American Progress believes that having a Cabinet agency such as DHS remains critical to the safety and well-being of Americans. 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. DHSs role should also be carefully calibrated to focus where the department is best positioned relative to other agencies, such as at the borders and ports of entry, and to enable effective information sharing with the other relevant federal players. DHS is committed to protecting and promoting the health and safety of the people of Wisconsin, making sure everyone can live their best life. 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. At a minimum, this would mean elevating the CRCL officereven while remaining operationally independent to oversee complaints related to civil rights and civil libertiesto an assistant secretary level, with a seat at the management table, to be able to more directly influence agencywide decision-making. The departments threat-oriented roles will, of course, remain, but this new framework will help DHS realign its focus and priorities on those areas where it can be maximally effective and provide value to the American people and those who live, study, work, travel, and seek safety here. 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. ] Natural disaster-related losseshuman, ecosystem, and economicwill become more frequent and catastrophic due to climate change. It has also warped the public perception of migrants as well as the political debate about immigration policy and has sidelined the service provider components of DHS which encompass the equally important mission of facilitating travel, trade, and administration of immigration benefits. 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. Recalibrating the DHS mission would empower the agency and its workforce to play a more effective role in the federal bureaucracy. Sign Up 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. Troy A. Miller is the Acting Commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). DHS also has a traditional role in disaster relief services that should be expanded. %%EOF 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. (November 25, 2002), available at, Executive Office of the President, The Department of Homeland Security (Washington: 2002), available at, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Who Joined DHS, available at, Committee on Homeland Security, House Passes Landmark Department of Homeland Security Authorization, Press release, July 20, 2017, available at, Committee on Homeland Security, H.R. 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. In 2017 and with overwhelming bipartisan support, the House of Representatives passed H.R. The Hypothermia Alert will be ACTIVATED at 7 PM, Tuesday, February 28, 2023. . These recommendations include: 1) provide experts for all five missions of the QHSR as part of homeland security personnel, 2) improve information sharing, 3) acquire closer relationships between local, state . 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. } Each employee's position is identified, including their function and who they report to within the firm. var onSuccessSubmitenSubscribeSlideUp = function() { DHSs Trusted Traveler programs are good examples of what DHS can do when it focuses on providing services and delivering real value to Americans and those traveling to the United States. DHS lacks those bureaucratic guardrails, and the consequences of weak constraints on DHS became particularly clear during the Trump administration. An organizational structure is a system that outlines how certain activities are directed in order to achieve the goals of an organization. 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. Rudy deLeon is a senior fellow with the National Security and International Policy team at the Center. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible. It determines the place and the role of each employee in the business, and is key to organizational development. var onSuccessSubmitenSubscribeFooter = function() { DHS should reduce its TOC efforts and transfer investigative leads and other TOC activities to the DOJ. Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure are increasingly common and could grind the U.S. economy and daily life to a halt if targeted toward the electrical grid or communications and internet services. DHS, primarily through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Coast Guard, is already the nations helper. Efforts are underway to improve departmentwide workforce satisfaction, measured through yearly index scores such as the inclusion and employee engagement indexes. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS 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. At the same time, DHS should step back from roles where it is neither needed nor best suited. The Department of Homeland Security should play an important role in addressing the challenges and threats of today and tomorrow, and it should do so in a way that upholds American ideals and provides value to those who live, study, work, travel, and seek shelter here. How has the departments mission changed since its creation? Mara Rudman, Rudy deLeon, Joel Martinez, 5 More When disaster strikes, FEMA is oftenthough not often enoughthe nations first responder. A well-managed border will be safe and secure while also efficiently offering different services needed to travel, trade, or seek asylum in the United States. The House approved the original bill on July 26, but the Senate was slower to consider the legislation due to partisan jurisdiction claims, parliamentary factors, and the deliberation of a few highly contentious issues.12 It was not until after the November 2002 elections that Congress reconvened and passed a compromise bill. 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. Advisory panels and committees that provide advice and recommendations on mission-related topics from academic engagement to privacy. However, the DHS secretary should launch an initiative specifically to study the departments recruitment, retention, and training efforts to further identify areas of success and for improvement. A full list of supporters is available here. Previously, Sally was a Law Clerk at U.S. 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 Mr. Price has more than two decades of federal law enforcement experience. 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 regularly interacts withand collects information onAmericans and U.S. persons in the routine course of its duties. The muddled intelligence mission and an expansive set of authorities present a worrying combination that has led to abusive activities and human rights violations. Likewise, while CAP has long argued that the nation should move away from a system based on large-scale immigration detention and toward alternatives such as community supervision,80 for the limited immigration detention that would remain, it would be more effective to have this function merged with, for example, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), also under the DOJ. 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. Who we serve Some of these include protecting critical infrastructure, including electricity and election security; administering citizenship and immigration services; and countering terrorism. 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. A list of senior leaders at the Department. Acronym Glossary 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. Many of todays most serious threats to Americas safety and prosperitynatural disasters, pandemic disease, cyberattacks, and violent white supremacyoriginate at home or are borderless by nature. 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 . 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. 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