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Lesson 2: Roles, Responsibilities, Strategy, and Structure of the Homeland Security Enterprise
Roles and Responsibilities of DHS
DHS has a complex and multifaceted role in public policy stemming from its dual imperatives to protect and prevent. Many agencies were brought together to create the modern DHS as we know it today. Each of them has distinct responsibilities for safeguarding our nation and preventing future terror attacks. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, Coast Guard, TSA, Secret Service and many other DHS components are aligned to work together in securing our domestic safety. However, the scope and diversity of the job, the depth and reach of various programs and policies, and the resources needed to execute these programs effectively requires both strategy and leadership.
As we examine the official mission and purpose of these DHS components we must recognize their diverse roles and responsibilities which, when combined effectively, provide a broad network of homeland security functions. Understanding the specific role which each of these components plays inside DHS is critical to understanding how DHS as a whole carries out its daily mission within the homeland security enterprise.
In the following video, former DHS Chief of Staff Christian Marrone - a Penn State alumn - discusses the diverse character of the department and some of its main roles and responsibilities:
(Note: Students who completed the iMPS-HLS Orientation may have seen this video already during the Orientation)
Taking the Department and understanding it, so the Department is, I said, very diverse in terms of mission space. We do everything from Emergency Preparedness to Cybersecurity. We do border security, aviation security. We’re in immigration benefits. We do --- we offer that as well through we grant citizenships and all the variation of that. We do aviation security. So the cornerstone the Department does, is based out of obviously 9/11 the counterterrorism mission. That’s the cornerstone and that’s the cornerstone certainly the Secretary’s priorities is counterterrorism that’ll always be, you know, first and foremost. But along with that counterterrorism you have all these other missions that we have to accomplish. So with that we have, again, a diverse set of components that were brought together that came from a number of different departments and agencies eleven years ago. And they’re finally starting to coalesce together. We’re really starting to see the Department work much more integrated together. That certainly one the efforts we’re undertaking is a better integration of the Department where we’re not so stovepiped and how we do things. With that we have a budget of a 60 billion dollars, it’s the 3rd largest budget in the federal government. 38 billion is our based budget. That comes from appropriated dollars, the remainder comes from fees. So if you have --- anytime you’ve every travelled through an airport and you look at your ticket fees you pay several different fees which help funds TSA in the security they do at the airports. With that said, with that budget it sounds like a lot of money but given the mission set we have to accomplish its challenging at times and the fiscal environment has not gotten any better and continue to be in a rather austere budget, federal budget environment. With that said, we in the Department goes through a rather vigorous budget process. We’ve established since Secretary Johnson has taken office. And the process is somewhat similar to what DOD goes through; a tried and true process since Secretary McNamara put in places the program and budgeting process. And so that’s one of the key processes that we have here in the Department, and how we fund our components and so components will come forward not just their budgets in stovepipes we did it around issue areas. And so we’ll look at the total budget, total spend that we’re processing in Cyber for instance. And so, in Cyber you’ll have our Protectorate that does Cybersecurity that does, that protects the Dot GOV and helps secure the Dot COM world. Then you have the Secret Service who does a lot of criminal cyber investigations as a part of their portfolio. Then you have some other smaller ones. The Coast Guard as cyber command as part of what they do. ICE has ---- a big part of what ICE does is a human trafficking and so there a cyber-dimension to that as well. So we look at the budget in totally of these key areas. Another key area is on Immigration. So Immigration has a number of different favors to it but Border security is an aspect of, if one can look at that as an aspect of border --- Border security of Immigration. As so we look at how we secure the border and all the aspect around that. So it’s not just the Customs and Border Protection and the Border Patrol that secures the border, the Coast Guard has a piece of that in the maritime domain. Certainly they are doing a lot of drug interdictions and we have immigration illegal migration of through the waterways, you know, through Haiti and Cuba and those places in particular in the southeast part of the United States. In addition to CVP you also have ICE. That ICE does the immigration customs and enforcement. They have part of the border security in the terms of – once ICE --- once CVP apprehend an individual ICE is – takes them into their custody and processes them for removal depending on the circumstances -- will process them for removal. So they’re a part of it. So when you look a border security you don’t just look at any one component. And that’s how we’ve changed the way in which the Department budgets. But it’s challenging given the environment because you fund all the things you like to do--- you have to fund –-- you have to obviously prioritize. So the process that we have set up allows us to be strategic and prioritize. And it’s also helping us integrate these functions better together. So when we do border security we longer just doing border security through the Border Patrol, it’s all these different other organizations and entities within DHS that do that. That’s the value in understanding and the education in the homeland security arena because that’s not readily apparent to--- to--- to most folks about how the Department is operating and changing the way it is operating. It is a dynamic environment now. We’re looking to again do more, better integration of how these components come together. So the budget is one way which we do that. We do a lot of strategic planning with all of our components. So if you’re talking about all the things that we do, the common thread through all of them again is security. And so what aviation --- what we do in aviation security side is not just what TSA does, CVP has a big, big customs and border protection through the Customs side. So anytime you come through --- come international into the United States you get processed through Customs. And that’s a form of aviation security as well on the back end of who’s coming into the country. And so we have pretty robust capabilities of knowing whose coming, where they’re coming from. On the front side, you know, TSA does a lot in terms of the security measures that need to be taken on aviation security so folks--- whose getting on the plane, knowing as much about those individuals to ensure that we – we don’t have bad folks getting on those planes in different locations. And that’s all around the world. Because not everything is just domestic based. And so--- so much of what we do in homeland security is impacted by what happens in other countries. So it’s a very dynamic environment. Then you look at things like what we do with the Secret Service. Again they have a protective mission. The Secret Service every day has a series of protectees including the President and the Vice President. Their job is to maintain their personal security and they do that very effectively. They also have security of the White House. But what most folks don’t understand about the Secret Service is that a critical part of their protectee mission is also their investigative mission. The Secret Service’s field offices all throughout the country which they do a lot of investigations into the financial --- financial crimes. In particular their legacy and how the secret service was started was essential through counterfeit, counterfeit money. Today that counterfeit has taken on a new realm in the cyber realm. And so the Secret Service is along with the FBI they’re the leading national security agencies looking and doing work in the Cyber world on the criminal side. And so the Secret Service does a lot of that and lends itself directly to the protective mission because the protective mission is you just don’t protect the protectee when you go to different cities and different countries you have to have folks to be able to help and expand that protective mission. And the investigative piece allows them to do that when folks aren’t doing the protective mission they’re doing investigative work. And they’re very well thought of in the law enforcement community for what they do. Then you look at --- as we talking about border security, Interior security is what ICE primarily does. They do a lot of the deportation through our removal operations. So the folks who are national security threats, criminals, etc., ICE is the one that go out there and find those individuals, they detain them and deport them. So they have to be heavy handed in terms of the immigration in the Interior. But part of what ICE does also is homeland security investigations, which plays a critical function in support of other law enforcement agencies. So counterfeiting of goods and intellectual property, ICE is there. ICE does a lot of counter-narcotics. They work very closely with the Department of Justice, DEA, ATF, and so you’ll see homeland security investigation out there doing a whole set of things. They are also out there in terms of border security, they’re going after the smugglers of individuals - folks who attempt to smuggle people in. What we find is often when we have an illegal --- illegal migrants don’t come to the border themselves, they come through what they call Coyotes. So ICE and HSSI they’ve been attacking those networks and particular what we experience this summer with the migration of children. There’s your networks there that smuggling these children in. ICE is played a critical role in attacking those networks. And so there a web when we look at homeland security really again a diverse mission, but it all comes together at the end of the day to protect the homeland in one form or another. One of the things most folks do recognize and realize is that FEMA would they do and the critical part of what they do in homeland security mission. So there’s a natural disaster FEMA is the first responder. They’re there, they’re present working with the state and local authorities to respond to be there on the scene and also as part of the recovery. And so that’s a critical function for the federal government; in particular has we’ve seen over the years ---- over the last several years more violent, bigger storms. The last being Hurricane Sandy that caused an enormous disruption to the northeast corridor. And so FEMA had played a critical role, obviously in that, and is critical tool for state and locals in particular Governors and Mayors, etc., as they respond to these. So it’s the federal arm of that.