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Issues in U.S. Immigration

Homeland Security Department: 2003

by Heather Hummel

The Law: Homeland security is an American term referring to the nationwide effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the borders of the United States, reduce the terrorism vulnerability, and minimize damage from attacks, as stated by the Secretary of the Air Force in 2006.

Date: 2002

Immigration Issues: Following the attacks of September 11 (aka 9/11), the United States Federal Government put in place a security framework designed to protect the U.S. from further large-scale attacks directed from abroad. In addition, this framework was developed to enhance federal, state, and local capabilities to better prepare for, respond to, and recover in the event of future threats and disasters. Thus became the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in March, 2003, and its collaboration of twenty-two separate agencies and offices into a single, Cabinet-level department.

Significance: After the September 11 attacks, the term “Homeland Security” came into play following reorganization in 2003 of many U.S. government agencies in order to form the United States Department of Homeland Security. The term is most often used to refer to the actions of the Department of Homeland Security, the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, or the United States House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security. Homeland defense (HD), on the other hand, is the protection of United States territory, sovereignty, domestic population, and critical infrastructure against external threats and aggression.

Background:

Homeland Security is officially defined by the National Strategy for Homeland Security as “a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur”. What most don't realize is that even prior to these attacks, the term Homeland Security had been used in limited policy circles. It wasn't until after the September 11th attacks that it became a prominent household term. In fact, the phrase “security of the American homeland” appeared in the 1998 report Catastrophic Terrorism: Elements of a National Policy by Ashton B. Carter, John M. Deutch, and Philip D. Zelikow.

Homeland security is coordinated at the White House by the Homeland Security Council, currently headed by John Brennan. Homeland security is also used to indicate the civilian aspect of this effort; “homeland defense” refers to the military component, led chiefly by the U.S. Northern Command headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The George W. Bush administration consolidated many actions under the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a cabinet department established as a result of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. However, much of the nation's homeland security activity remains outside of Department of Homeland Security; for example, the FBI and CIA are not part of the Department, and other executive departments, such as the Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services, play an important role in certain aspects of homeland security.

The concept of “Homeland Security” in the United States extends and recombines the responsibilities of different government agencies and entities. According to Homeland Security research, the U.S. federal Homeland Security and Homeland Defense includes 187 federal agencies and departments, including the United States National Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the United States Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the United States Secret Service, the Transportation Security Administration, the 14 agencies that constitute the U.S. intelligence community and Civil Air Patrol. Although many businesses now operate in the area of Homeland Security, it is a government function.

Because the U.S. Department of Homeland Security includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it also has responsibility for preparedness, response, and recovery to natural disasters.

According to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2011, and Homeland Security Research Corporation, DHS Homeland security funding constitutes only 20–21% of the consolidated U.S. Homeland Security - Homeland Defense funding, while approximately 40% of the DHS budget funds civil, non-security activities, such as the U.S. coast guard search and rescue operations and customs functions. The U.S. Homeland Security is the world's largest Homeland counter terror organization, having 40% of the global FY 2010 homeland security funding.

The scope and duties of Homeland Security includes:

  • Emergency preparedness and response (for both terrorism and natural disasters), including volunteer medical, police, emergency management, and fire personnel;

  • Domestic and International intelligence activities, largely today within the FBI;

  • Critical infrastructure and perimeter protection;

  • Investigation of people making and distributing child pornography;

  • Border security, including both land, maritime and country borders;

  • Transportation security, including aviation and maritime transportation;

  • Biodefense;

  • Detection of radioactive and radiological materials;

  • Research on next-generation security technologies.

Dust clouds enveloping Lower Manhattan after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001.

iusi_p0380.jpg

(www.bigfoto.com)

Legislation:

Just eleven days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge was appointed as the first Director of the Office of Homeland Security in the White House. The office oversaw and coordinated a comprehensive national strategy to safeguard the country against terrorism and respond to any future attacks.

Due to the passage of the Homeland Security Act by Congress in November 2002, the Department of Homeland Security officially became a stand-alone, Cabinet-level department. Opening its doors on March 1, 2003, its purpose remains to further coordinate and unify national homeland security efforts.

From the Department of Homeland Security June 2002, George W. Bush, “The President proposes to create a new Department of Homeland Security, the most significant transformation of the U.S. government in over half-century by largely transforming and realigning the current confusing patchwork of government activities into a single department whose primary mission is to protect our homeland. The creation of a Department of Homeland Security is one more key step in the President's national strategy for homeland security.”

Title I - Department of Homeland Security

Sec. 101. Executive Department; Mission

(a) Establishment. - “There is established a Department of Homeland Security, as an executive department of the United States within the meaning of title 5, United States Code.

(b) Mission

  (1) In General. - The primary mission of the Department is to

    (A) prevent terrorist attacks within the United States;

    (B) reduce the vulnerability of the United States to terrorism; and

    (C) minimize the damage, and assist in the recovery, from terrorist attacks that do occur within the United States.”

On February 15, 2005, Secretary Michael Chertoff took office and initiated a Second Stage Review (2SR) to evaluate the department's operations, policies, and structures. More than 250 members of the department and 18 action teams participate in this effort. The teams also consulted public and private partners at the federal, state, local, tribal, and international levels. On July 13, 2005, Secretary Chertoff announced a six-point agenda, based upon the findings, which included a significant reorganization of the department.

The President's fiscal year 2010 budget requested the transfer of the Federal Protective Service (FPS) from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD)—streamlining decision-making and aligning the protection of federal buildings with DHS' broader critical infrastructure protection mission and the provision was included in the DHS appropriations bill President Obama signed into law on Oct. 28, 2009. It also elevated the Office of Intergovernment Programs from NPPD to a direct report to the Secretary and renamed it to the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

In 2010, Secretary Janet Napolitano led the completion of the first-ever Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR), which established a unified, strategic framework for homeland security missions and goals. Subsequently, DHS conducted a Bottom-Up Review (BUR) to align our programmatic activities and organizational structure to better serve those missions and goals. The QHSR reflects the most comprehensive assessment and analysis of homeland security to date. DHS worked closely with the White House, National Security Staff, other Federal departments and agencies, and our state, local, tribal and territorial partners to represent the whole-of-government approach to national security envisioned by the Administration.

Further Reading

1 

Kamien, David, McGraw-Hill Homeland Security Handbook: Strategic Guidance for a Coordinated Approach to Effective Security and Emergency Management, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill; 2 Edition, November 12, 2012. A book that emphasizes its focus as a “one-stop guide” for professionals or students who are involved in counterterrorism, homeland security, business continuity, or disaster risk management.

2 

Bullock, Jane, Haddow, George, Coppola, Damon P., Introduction to Homeland Security, Fourth Edition: Principles of All-Hazards Risk Management, Butterworth-Heinemann; 4 Edition, January 17, 2012. A textbook in which the authors showcase their experience and analysis, offering additional research-based data that gives balance to the “field-tested practical information included in each chapter.”

3 

Bullock, Jane, Haddow, George, Coppola, Damon P., Homeland Security, The Essentials, Butterworth-Heinemann; 4 Edition, November 2, 2012. A book in which the authors describe the risks the United States faces and the infrastructures that are in place to address them. They delineate the principles put upon Homeland Security in order to prepare for, mitigate, manage, and recover from terrorists, emergencies, and disasters.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Hummel, Heather. "Homeland Security Department: 2003." Issues in U.S. Immigration, edited by Carl L. Bankston III, Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=IUSI_0099.
APA 7th
Hummel, H. (2015). Homeland Security Department: 2003. In C. Bankston III (Ed.), Issues in U.S. Immigration. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Hummel, Heather. "Homeland Security Department: 2003." Edited by Carl L. Bankston III. Issues in U.S. Immigration. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2015. Accessed September 15, 2025. online.salempress.com.