The Department of Homeland Security, or as it is more commonly known DHS, began as a specific response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C. and over the airspace of Pennsylvania. Immediately following the attacks, an investigation into how U.S. could have allowed the attacks to occur as well as an initial review of the response to the attacks revealed that one of the key reasons that the terrorists were able to act without detection was that American civil defense abilities had regressed to an untenable condition. To be sure, what the investigation and review revealed was the civil defense authority had been distributed to over 15 federal agencies, all of which were unable or unwilling to work with one another in the name of national security. Consequently, this leas President G.W. Bush to authorize the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security (OHS) in the White House as a means of centrally coordinating the nation’s civil defense infrastructure to provide a better defense against and response to terrorism and terrorist attacks focusing on domestic targets (Bush, 2002).
Soon, however, President Bush and his advisors came to the realization that the OHS was incapable of providing long-term civil defense coordination. Moreover, despite its placement in the White House, the OHS was still confronting resistance from a number of federal agencies in its efforts to coordinate and streamline activity. Consequently, in 2002, Bush recommended that the OHS be transformed into an independent department that would take over the authorities of the agencies that it had been coordinating since 2001. As a result, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act of 2002 which established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by, in essence, transferring the OHS out of the White House, and putting it in direct control over 21 federal agencies including the Secret Service, the Customs Service, the Coast Guard, and the Immigration and Naturalization Services (DHS, 2014). To be sure, while the agencies were able to keep their names, they were no longer independent but rather divisions of DHS and answerable to the Secretary of DHS. The primary goals of the DHS are to protect the national from terrorism and other man-made or natural disasters as well as keep the President and Congress appraised of the state of domestic security (DHS, 2015). In order to achieve its goals DHS has established and implemented a range of procedures and protocols. Some of the more important one are discussed below.
The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR). The QSHR is a detailed report published every four years by the DHS detailing its mission, vision, goals, and capabilities. It also may identify the current threats it deems worthy of consideration as well as those that have been resolved (DHS, 2014). Moreover, the QHSR is used by DHS to lay out the priorities it hopes to focus on in the next four years.
Since DHS is comprised of so many different parts, one of its original concerns was how to effectively organize itself as a sum of its parts. The Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE) was established to bring increased and continuing integration of all DHS divisions with the goal of eventually having the department work as one-unit with little or no internal barriers separating or compromising acting in unison.
While terrorism was one of the main reasons for the establishment of DHS, it is not the only threat or even the most dangerous threat that the nation’s civil defense forces must confront. Indeed, natural disasters and man-made accidents have historically been a bigger threat than terrorism. Accordingly, DHS has established the National Response Framework (NRF) as a way to best handle affairs in the event of a natural disaster or accident. What the NRF provides is a framework of responsibilities from local to federal, that relevant stakeholders are expect to carry out in the event of an emergency. Accordingly, the NRF provides a scalable response to an emergency that, depending on the emergencies seriousness, brings to bear multiple levels of coordinated state assistance.
NRF works intimately with the National Incident Management System (NIMS). NIMS is the alarm that informs the NRF to react. Indeed, the purpose of NIMS is to provide a national warning system on potential and occurring emergencies. Through NIMS, relevant stakeholders are informed of potential issues or threats so that they can begin the process to preparing a response, coordinating with relevant partners and taken the first steps of action to effectively resolve threatening circumstances.
One of the essential elements of modern society is the growth and spread of information technology. Information technology affect all aspects of life including the safety and security of the nation. In short, it is necessary to protect the nation’s computer networks. The Industrial Computer System (ICS) refers to the computer network that is used for most if not all of the nation’s critical infrastructure, such as water, gas and electricity grids. Accordingly, one of the main responsibilities of DHS is to ensure the integrity of the ICS at all time.
Finally, since one of the main responsibilities of DHS is immigration and one of the more emotional immigration circumstances involves children, DHS has established the unaccompanied child (UC) program to identify and respond to the situation which unaccompanied children cross border into the U.S. The purpose of this DHS program is to provide humanitarian assistance to one of the most if not the most vulnerable immigrant populations in the nation.
References
Bush, G.W. (2002, Jun.). The Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/book_0.pdf
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). (2014, Aug. 15). Department Components. Retrieved from
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). (2014). The 2014 quadrennial homeland security review. Retrieved from https://www.dhs.gov/sites/defaults/files/publications/2014-qhsr-final-508.pdf
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). (2015). About DHS. Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/about-dhs
