DHSReforming DHS
The arrests of U.S. citizens on the streets of Portland, Oregon, by unidentified DHS personnel have raised concerns about the department, its mission, and its focus. These concerns were expressed, among others, by former DHS secretaries. Michael Chertoff, Tom Ridge, and Jeh Johnson. A new report published the Center for American Progress (CAP) recommends five immediate steps that the next administration and Congress should take to begin to refocus the department and prevent its personnel from being used in the future as federal police force.
The arrests of U.S. citizens on the streets of Portland, Oregon, by unidentified DHS personnel have raised concerns about the department, its mission, and its focus. These concerns were expressed, among others, by former DHS secretaries. Michael Chertoff (DHS secretary from 2005 to 2009) did not mince words: The title of a 28 July article he published in the New York Times: “The Hijacking of Homeland Security”; Tom Ridge, the first DHS secretary (2003-2005), said: DHS was not created “to be the President’s personal militia”; Ridge, who was the governor of Pennsylvania, specifically called out how the federal authorities were unwelcome in Portland, saying: “it would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities”). Jeh Johnson, who served as DHS secretary under Obama (2013-2017), said: “Let’s not engage in controversial one-offs that will have the ability to undermine and compromise our core missions across the Homeland Security Department.”
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See also:
— “DHS’s Changing Mission Leaves Its Founders Dismayed as Critics Call for a Breakup,” HSNW, 14 August 2020
— Gen. Francis X. Taylor (Ret.), “I Ran the DHS Intelligence Unit. Its Reports on Journalists are Concerning.” HSNW, 11 August 2020
— Benjamin Wittes, “What if J. Edgar Hoover Had Been a Moron?” HSNW, 4 August 2020
— Masha Gessen, “Homeland Security Was Destined to Become a Secret Police Force,” HSNW, 27 July 2020
— Robert Lee Maril, “Who Is Watching the Border Patrol? HSNW, 21 July 2020
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A new report published the Center for American Progress (CAP) recommends five immediate steps that the next administration and Congress should take to begin to refocus the department and prevent its personnel from being used in the future as federal police force.
The authors of the report say that there have been warning signs about dysfunction and what they term “a culture of abuse” at DHS for a while now, including the lack of accountability for repeated abuses by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel; the excessive use of force along the U.S.-Mexico border; and families separated at the border. “And while a full top-to-bottom review of the department, its mission, structure, authorities, and oversight is critically needed, in the interim, there are key steps that the next administration and Congress must take immediately,” the report’s authors say.
