1. There is a lot of commentary about how the FBI or CIA might be impacted institutionally in the future by the Trump agenda and attacks. I'd now add DHS to that list. Unlike the FBI and CIA, though, DHS has no long term legacy of "normal" to return to.
2. Anyone who has worked knows its challenges. An agency born out of 9/11, cobbled together at whim, facing bad news at every turn, it's very existence was barely desired by anyone but came together as a political calculation by Senate Dems who wanted to show toughness after 9/11
3. Color codes, disorganization, money spent unwisely, aggressive tactics, etc. etc, it was an agency that was easy to hate. And then came Hurricane Katrina.
4. Like in Puerto Rico, the deaths and destruction in New Orleans were the result of decades of neglect, local and state incapacity, and a failed federal response of epic proportions. The history is still be written. But it was also a pivot for DHS.
5. Call it a course correction, but after Katrina -- starting in Bush's second term and through Obama's -- the Department began to think with more sophistication about its mandate: the secure flow of people, goods and networks.
6. It wasn't just about terrorism anymore. 3 main efforts guided us: minimize ALL risks (all hazards approach); maximize NATIONAL defenses (engage all homeland partners in the effort); AND maintain OUR common identity in the process (remember, its our homeland. . . the US).
7. It was never pretty, and immigration enforcement efforts are always a challenge. But as a whole the Department, and all its operational agencies such as FEMA, border patrol and even immigration enforcement, had tried to balance those three tenets. It was in its nascent stage
8. In less than 2 years, the Trump Administration has turned DHS into an immigration enforcement agency. I think its lack of interest/responsibility in Puerto Rico is a sign of that. While it may talk about "all hazards" (any and all threats), it is now just a border agency.
9. And the difference is that its a border agency -- unleashing agents and policies in ways that are both cruel and ineffective, that lead to separation of families, suicides and fear both at the border and in the interior -- unmoored from the homeland, from what makes us the US.
10. Security is, in theory, the easiest thing in the world. Seriously. A wall, a lock, a shutdown, whatever. The challenge of homeland security is that it has to be balanced against our economic needs and national values. We aren't even trying anymore.
11. The "Abolish ICE" movement is understandable, but also not a solution. A country like ours needs to enforce immigration rules; we will always need border protections. It is the policies that have to change.
12. How this ends -- in the courts, ballot box, or Congress -- is anyone's guess. But Republicans and Democrats, after many many errors, had come to understand that it was the homeland -- complicated, big and diverse -- that was what we were protecting.
13. I think about the Dreamers. And the parents at the border. A dead father who committed suicide. The Puerto Ricans. And that isn't the homeland security that two previous administrations built. It's not recognizable anymore. END.
