what is the organizational structure of dhs

HT]VBi#BPmd=3;gN3AMA:D(]H.Jp! It should also prioritize reducing the backlog of visa applications accumulated under the Trump administration.66 Focusing on these aspects will provide value to U.S. citizens, visitors, those who seek to become Americans, those who want to reunite with family members, and the businesses that rely on these individuals to help the U.S. economy grow. While it is beyond the scope of this report to detail where every subcomponent within DHS belongs, components that are primarily focused on investigating violations of federal laws should most naturally live within the FBI, the lead agency charged with investigating criminal activity. } ` " The organizational structure of, for example, a company is a system used to define its hierarchy. An official website of the United States government. Established in 2003, the Department of Homeland Security was largely defined by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the response to those tragic events continues to shape the priorities and mission of the department today. This fractured structure makes it nearly impossible for DHS headquarters leaders to manage the department effectively or efficiently.36 CAP has joined the Atlantic Council and the CNAS in calling for consolidated oversight of DHS.37 In addition, six former secretaries and acting secretaries of homeland security recently signed a letter to congressional leadership calling for the House and Senate to consolidate congressional oversight of DHS in a single authorizing committeeas is done for other departments such as the Department of Defense.38 A more streamlined structure under one authorizing and one appropriating committeesuch as that governing the Pentagon post-Goldwater-Nichols reform, where oversight was centralized under the Armed Services committeeswould allow lawmakers to more effectively oversee the broad range of the departments activities and ensure they are properly balanced against the agencys overall priorities.39 The recent memorandum of understanding announced by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a welcome step toward improving oversight coordination among the various committees that have jurisdiction over DHS, but more work is needed to centralize authority under the Committee on Homeland Security in the House and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in the Senate.40. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Finally, this report proposes near- and longer-term steps that the current administration could take to realize this vision and deliver better value for the American people. Both FPS and ICE perform primarily law enforcement functions that do not enable other safety and services functions within DHS to operate. 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. 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. CBP, under DHS, is charged with functions that range from countering terrorism, securing the border, and facilitating trade and travel. The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) helps provide essential services to Minnesota's most vulnerable residents. Establishing the protection of civil liberties and privacy as a core DHS mission would fill a critical gap in executive branch roles that is not currently being comprehensively addressed by other departments and agencies. DHS has an uneven role in communicating threat information to the public. Chief Financial Officer - Robert Brock. Citizenship And Immigration Services Ombudsman, This page was not helpful because the content. Rebalancing toward a safety and services model requiresbringingDHSs activitiesintobalance andensuring they arenot overly focused on threat-oriented priorities. 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. It determines the place and the role of each employee in the business, and is key to organizational development. All subordinate Components must abide by the organizational structure outlined herein. It also identifies opportunities to reform the factors that hinder DHS from being maximally effective in providing value to the nation. 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. Carrie Cordero from the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) has written extensively on the need for enhanced oversight and accountability to address the growth in size and scope of DHSs activities.32 As Cordero argued, there is a persistent mismatch between DHSs foundational statutory mission and its day-to-day operations. Soon thereafter, Congress also put the wheels in motion to stand up a new center for countering terrorism. There are 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any . DHS should reduce its TOC efforts and transfer investigative leads and other TOC activities to the DOJ. 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. 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 . Even more so, the Border Patrol has a significant deficit of trust to make up in border communities, which in turn has led to morale issues within the rank and file and resistance to policy changes.72. CISA is one of DHSs most visible success stories. 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. Their combined mission would include traditional security components; facilitating the movement of goods and people to grow binational economies; upholding U.S. domestic and international protection obligations; and promoting quality of life for all people living in and migrating to and between border communities.73, The way the current Coast Guard balances its enforcement and service mission is commendable and could serve as a guide to recalibrating border management. Despite consensus among policymakers that the department could be far more effective,1 there is little agreement on how to fix it. There has been a long-standing bureaucratic battle between the DOJ and DHS over which federal agency has the lead on countering transnational organized crime (TOC). Seizing the opportunity to reimagine what it means to keep America secure and recalibrate DHSs priorities accordingly would enable the department to refocus its efforts in areas where it can add unique value and ensure that the government fulfills its responsibility to guarantee the safety, security, and prosperity of all Americans and those who come to live, study, work, travel, and seek safety here. Alexandra Schmitt is a senior policy analyst on the National Security and International Policy team at the Center. 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 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. The original mandate and goal of DHS was to counter terrorism and homeland threatsbut nearly 20 years later, it is time to refocus DHSs role in counterterrorism activities. Incident response is a role that DHS is well situated to lead, and by doing so, and doing so well, other federal agencies can leverage DHSs incident response capacity and avoid replication. Yes No Others believe DHS is absent today and falls short in serving Americans safety and security needs. DHSs complicated web of roles and responsibilities also means that it plays a supporting role nearly everywhere but rarely leads. 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. DHS has a key role in CBPs primary function, facilitating safely the transfer of goods and people, with its related enforcement component supporting that function. With the State Department focused on messaging abroad, DHS could play the lead for countering disinformation domestically. Paul C. Light, The true size of government is nearing a record high, Brookings Institution, October 7, 2020, available at, Joshua Breisblatt, Spike in Corruption Followed Last Hiring Surge at CBP and ICE, Immigration Impact, April 25, 2017, available at, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, About CISA., To ensure the government does not inappropriately influence U.S. public opinion and discourse, Congress needs to strengthen its oversight and laws outlawing domestic government propaganda (currently articulated under the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012). endstream endobj 700 0 obj <>stream 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. A list of all Operational and Support Components that make up DHS. An expanded role for DHS in managing information sharing and public disclosures of intelligence between federal entities and their local counterparts would be a valuable public service and enhance DHSs role as a communicator. The dominating focus on counterterrorism comes at the expense of other activities that DHS is uniquely positioned to execute among federal agencies such as providing efficient, safe, and respectful immigration services; facilitating international trade and travel; serving as the nations risk adviser for critical infrastructure; and proactively responding to disasters that do not fall within the missions of other parts of the federal bureaucracy. Components such as the Coast Guard, the TSA, and CBP have narrow law enforcement roles that are directly tied to safety and security missions. And there is no other department with the mandate and track record of playing a bridging role between state, local, tribal, and territorial officials and the federal government. Mara Rudman is the executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress. , an advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans. Pandemics can uproot daily life and economic security when border-screening measures fail to halt early transmission. It might mean working with public and private sector stakeholders to deliver better information about risks to critical infrastructure. Though the independence of the DOJ and FBI has been tested in the pastduring the J. Edgar Hoover era at the FBI, for example, and across the DOJ during the past four yearsrich institutional memory supported by decades of oversight at these other law enforcement agencies has resulted in unambiguous statutory authorities and well-established norms that have helped these institutions withstand politicization and guide department behavior. In part because of the disparate nature of DHS authorizing and appropriating entities, Congress has never passed an authorization bill for the department. At the national level, DHSs attention and political emphasis is out of balance with many of todays most serious threats.
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