DHS launches new public outreach program to improve image

DHS is launching a new outreach program aimed at improving the department’s negative image among certain groups.

The pilot program is set to be launched in Chicago this week. Its goal is to combat the stereotypes, mistrust, and misinformation that people hold about the department and its agencies, especially U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Robyn Dessaure, a DHS field director, said, “All they see is that we’re standing at the borders, searching luggage. It’s time for us to get back on the ground.”

According to Dessaure, the individual agencies within DHS have become disconnected from the public due in large part to the massive government reorganization that created DHS in late 2002.

The outreach program will hold meetings where DHS officials will give immigrants, Muslims, and other groups the opportunity to express their concerns, ask questions, and learn more about the department.

The FBI has been holding meeting with Muslim communities at mosques for years, but the DHS program goes one step further engages with a diverse range of community groups.

On Monday, the program will hold its first event at the University of Illinois at Chicago and DHS officials have invited several organizations including student groups and the Polish American Chamber of Commerce.

The idea for the outreach campaign was born from a series of meetings in Chicago last year.

Members of the Muslim community in Chicago’s North Side were concerned about federal policing efforts that they perceived as discriminatory and insisted that federal officials meet with community leaders and residents.

The meetings were often contentious as Muslims expressed their extreme frustration, but residents and community leaders believe that the meetings were useful in increasing communication. In the end, more than 100 people attended the meetings.

Dessaure says that discussion topics at future meetings will include human trafficking and how to apply for agency jobs.

Dessaure also says the program has no additional costs as it is part of the community outreach that the agency already conducts.

DHS hopes to eventually expand the program to other cities in the United States, but community groups are skeptical about the program and its intent.

Alheli Herrera, an organizer for Enlace Chicago, a nonprofit community group that has been invited to meet with DHS officials, said, “The perception of ICE in our community is that that they are out to get us and especially get people who are here without status.”

She added, “We’re willing to work with them, but it’s taken with a huge spoonful of skepticism.”

Residents of Little Village, a heavily Mexican neighborhood, are still upset about a 2007 daytime ICE raid in a neighborhood shopping mall.

Immigrant rights advocacy groups also question the timing of the program’s launch, as ICE is currently trying to expand an automatic fingerprint scanning program in Illinois. The new program would allow law enforcement officials to automatically check the immigration status of people that are arrested.

In a statement, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said the program was simply a public relations campaign that was “[putting] lipstick on a very ugly pig.”