Proposed change in combating terrorism
In order to combat terrorism effectively, I propose that the Homeland Security Department introduce a new policy of information searching on the travellers into the United States of America. The new system should involve the use of joint information pulling methods that employ the use of data collected from the embassy at the visitor’s home country and incorporated into the system of the United States Homeland Department. This proposal would see to it that the information gathered at the airports on persons arriving into the United States of America is merely corroborative with the substantial work having been done by the respective embassy concerned. This would imply that embassies would have to be staffed with more security personnel in-charge of handling logistical issues at the embassy level. Upon arrival into the United States of America, the airport security personnel shall already have the information about the passenger with compete profiles, advanced and confidential information on the person. It is on this premise that terrorist would be tracked easily and with accurate and detailed information.
Prior situation
Currently the position is designed in a way that embassies do quite a little work with a lot of security matters left at the charge of the Department of Homeland Security and executed at the airports. The embassies merely collect basic data on applicants for visas and carry out basic interviews at the visitor’s home country. The successful applicant can easily put up a story that due to the logistical and technical incapacities of the embassies, they (the visitors) get away with. It is this that exposes the United States of America to the error of inadvertently admitting terrorists into the land of opportunities.
Reasons for proposal
It is my observation that the change in policy and procedure would surely improve the security situation. It stands a huge chance of reducing the security exposure risk the United States of America commits each day it admits into the country nationals of other countries without comprehensive information and data. It would eliminate the culture of trials and errors in the security system and assist towards getting it right. This would ultimately enable the achievement of the dream of making America safe for the citizenry and for the world at large.
Anticipated positive results
The policy changes are likely to lead to a raft of changes. However, the most important change expected is the likely improvement of the state of security in the nation. The nation will be able to filter out the good from the bad. It would also improve the information base of the security intelligence system thereby effectively avoiding any unpredictable occurrences.
Resources needed
The policy changes would need incremental of financial, personnel and material nature. For starters, it would necessitate the deployment of Homeland Security personnel at the embassies across the world. To reduce the costs, a sampling can be done so that only hot spot countries are staffed with Homeland Security department employees while the other embassies can use the local staff but well trained and oriented of the new modalities. It would also mean that the financial support to embassies is increased so as to support the implementation and pay the salaries of the additional staff. In addition, it would need intense and intimate coordination and correlation between the departments of Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security. This means it needs a lot of support from the political leadership and the bureaucracy
References
Chertoff, M. (2009). Homeland Security: Assessing the First Five Years. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Homeland Security Department. (2012, September 12). Immigration Enforcement . Retrieved January 6, 2013, from Homeland security: http://www.dhs.gov/topic/immigration-enforcement
Ward, R. H. (2006). Homeland Security: An Introduction. New York: Elsevier.
