Congress has repeatedly attempted to guide DHS and shape the prioritization of its missions but has achieved little success. While the department must continue its efforts to enforce U.S. laws where applicable, those activities conducted at DHS should be primarily in service to the overall safety and services mission of the agency. if(subscribe.checkValidity()) { These dangers will require DHS to step up its efforts in areas that have not been its primary focus, prioritizing its missions differently than it has over the past two decades. Advancing Racial Equity and Justice, Building an Economy for All, Restoring Social Trust in Democracy, Biden Administration, Foreign Policy, Immigration, National Security+4More. Citizenship and Immigration Services align our organizational structure to achieve the greatest efficiency and accomplish our mission. This structure is often mapped out in an organizational chart, which visually represents how each position within the company relates to each other. The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. To effectively manage the bureaucracy and oversee the recalibration of the department mission, the Biden administration should work with Congress to increase resources to the DHS secretary and move away from the hyperdecentralization that characterizes its current structure. 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. Had these functions been merged under the BOP when the Obama administration announced that it would end the use of private prisons in DOJ facilities,81 it would have likely meant a similar end to some of the most problematic facilities in the immigration context as well.82. And with a clear intelligence mission, DHS can redouble its efforts as originally envisioned to facilitate the communication of threat information between the federal government, state and local authorities, and the private sector, while also ensuring that its intelligence activities are not beyond the scope of its authorities or redundant to activities conducted by other intelligence agencies. 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 outlines the flow of information and the hierarchy of decision-making across roles and teams. DHS could also play an important role in countering disinformation in partnership with the State Departments Global Engagement Center. Or it might mean partnering with technology companies to thwart domestic extremist messaging on online platforms. Executive Office of Health and Human Services Department of Public Health Senior Managers February 23, 2023 Assistant Commissioner Administrator X (Vacant) Director, Staff Training & Development Program Manager VI Elena Nuciforo Chief Operating Officer Administrator XI Eileen Sullivan Deputy Chief Operating Family Health & Director . Yes No DHS regularly interacts withand collects information onAmericans and U.S. persons in the routine course of its duties. DHS Assistant Secretary of Operations - Dulce Quintero. The muddled intelligence mission and an expansive set of authorities present a worrying combination that has led to abusive activities and human rights violations. Without strengthened protections and an ethos committed to protecting all Americans equally, such sharing may do more harm than good. While the Coast Guard plays an important role in maritime security and maritime law enforcement efforts, it is also responsible forand takes great pride insearch and rescue and disaster relief efforts. Mara Rudman, Rudy deLeon, Joel Martinez, 5 More Successive reform efforts and the use of DHS to advance partisan political objectives have led to sharp swings in the departments headquarters-level focus. Looking for U.S. government information and services? The department can no longer fulfill its purpose by focusing disproportionately on international terrorism and immigration enforcement and must understand that enforcement-overdrive has damaged critical relationships with communities and their leaders all across the country.10. When disaster strikes, FEMA is oftenthough not often enoughthe nations first responder. HT]VBi#BPmd=3;gN3AMA:D(]H.Jp! Some law enforcement functions are compatible with a safety and services model at DHS. Federal emergencies will continue to pose significant threats to Americans and their way of life. Going forward, DHS should reorganize its activities around roles in connecting, communicating, facilitating, welcoming, and helpingin addition to a recalibrated role for protecting, securing, preventing, and enforcing. In cases where special expertise is required, DHS can serve as an emergency response quarterback, identifying resources and making them available to the departments and agencies that need them. It might mean working with public and private sector stakeholders to deliver better information about risks to critical infrastructure. It would also enable DHS to further build partnerships between the federal government and counterparts in state and local government and the private sector, if properly managed with safeguards to protect civil liberties and privacy. Looking ahead, it is easy to imagine threats to Americans economic security or food supply that DHS could help to solve through its critical infrastructure and emergency response capabilities, were it determined to do so. This helping mission would also naturally fit with DHSs existing role as a connector between federal resources and state and local authorities, which must work closely together during disaster management response and relief efforts. Public debate is split between those who call for the department, or parts of it, to be dismantled8 and those who argue that DHS needs more resources and responsibility.9Both approaches miss the point. DHS should reduce its TOC efforts and transfer investigative leads and other TOC activities to the DOJ. For more information about the offices and agencies that make up DHS, or to find out about the Department's leadership, click on the links below. The Biden administration should also work with Congress to significantly increase resources in future appropriations toward the secretarys front office to be more commensurate with the bureaucracys size and scope, ideally through reallocations within the existing budget. Since no part of Congress authorizes the entire departmentwide functions, DHSs appropriators have largely become the subcommittees of de facto jurisdiction over the department. The Center for American Progress believes that having a Cabinet agency such as DHS remains critical to the safety and well-being of Americans. After looking at each homeland security organizational structure, a number of recommendations were made that could benefit each entity. 696 0 obj <> endobj 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. 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. The initiative should consider what changes might be needed in human capital and launch programs to realign the future workforce accordingly. An official website of the United States government. With these adjustments, DHS will be able to execute a clear mission, which includes delivering immigration and asylum services effectively, honoring historic American values as a refuge for those seeking sanctuary from repression and injustice while keeping the nation safe. 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. These agenciesespecially CBP and ICEcenter their focus and activities around the law enforcement aspects of their functions. VDSS Organizational Structure VDSS consists of: Home Office in Richmond Virginia, which houses its Divisions and Program Areas Five Regional Offices which oversee and support community and local organizations Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) District Offices Licensing Offices Organizational Structure Report Rudy deLeon is a senior fellow with the National Security and International Policy team at the Center. Instead, DHS should strategically recalibrate its priorities around a safety and services model rather than a threat-oriented modelwhich, in its current incarnation, is primarily concerned with counterterrorism and immigration enforcement, with communities of color, immigrants, and refugees treated as threats. var onSuccessSubmitenSubscribeSlideUp = function() { An official website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The organization of DHS is in accordance with the Homeland Security Act, as modified by previous notices to Congress under Section 872 of the Homeland Security Act and by future legislative enactments. It determines the place and the role of each employee in the business, and is key to organizational development. 8791, the Department of Homeland Security Reform Act of 2020 As Introduced by Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), available at, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, available at, Steve Vladeck and Benjamin Wittes, DHS Authorizes Domestic Surveillance to Protect Statues and Monuments, Lawfare, July 20, 2020, available at, Federal Register, Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records, September 18, 2017, available at, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Privacy Act of 1974; DHS/CBP-024 Intelligence Records System (CIRS) System of Records,, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, available at, U.S. National Archives, Executive Order 12333 United States intelligence activities, December 4, 1981, available at, Mitch Lortz, What is the All-Hazards Approach to Emergency Preparedness?, Everbridge, January 9, 2018, available at, For example, a 2010 fact sheet released a year after the bombing highlighted department reforms aimed at enhancing counterterrorism efforts and claimed, Protecting the United States from terrorism is the cornerstone of homeland security. Press Office, Department of Homeland Security 2010 Accomplishments & Reforms (Washington: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2010), available at, Nick Miroff, Trump shifting DHS focus from counterterrorism to immigration,, Kaveh Waddell, America Already Had a Muslim Registry,, Sari Horwitz and Jerry Markon, Racial profiling will still be allowed at airports, along border despite new policy,, American Civil Liberties Union, National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, available at, Carrie Cordero, Reforming the Department of Homeland Security Through Enhanced Oversight & Accountability (Washington: Center for a New American Security, 2020), available at, Richard Gonzales, ICE Detains Alleged Victim Of Domestic Abuse At Texas Courthouse, NPR, February 16, 2017, available at, American Civil Liberties Union, ICE and Border Patrol Abuses, available at, Ryan Brooks, ICE Deported A Survivor Of The El Paso Walmart Shooting Who Was Assisting In The Investigation, Her Lawyers Says, Buzzfeed News, January 30 2021, available at, Donald J. Mihalek, Congressional committee power erodes homeland security,, The Atlantic Council, The Future of DHS project: Time to reform Congressional oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, December 17, 2020, available at, Atlantic Council, Former and Acting Secretaries of Homeland Security sign open letter on consolidating congressional jurisdiction over DHS, Press release, November 9, 2020, available at, Carrie Cordero and Katrina Mulligan, Modernizing the Department of Homeland Security, Lawfare, December 9, 2020, available at, Office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Pelosi Announces Agreement on Committee Jurisdiction Regarding Department of Homeland Security, Press release, January 25, 2021, available at, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Intelligence mission and an ethos committed to protecting all Americans equally, such sharing may do more harm good! 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