Homeland Security
Domestic terrorism is the violence against the infrastructure or the civilian population of any particular nation. Usually, domestic terrorism is often caused by citizens of the country attacked to influence, coerce, and intimidating national policy. In the United States, domestic terrorism increased over the years with the El Paso attack being one of the two most recent mass shootings in Texas, Dayton, and Texas. Various security agencies have been formed in the United States to ensure that domestic attacks are controlled and prevented among them the Central Investigation Agency (CIA), the FBI, and the Homeland security (HS). The main aim of this paper is to discuss HS as an agency of ensuring the safety of the United States.
History of HS
HS is a national security agency whose goal is to make sure that the United States and the people living there are secured, safe, and resilient against terrorist attacks. Homeland security does not include the only constraint its role to terrorism attacks but is also involved with other incidents like natural disasters. It is the primary Agency in the United States' government, and it has its origins in the response of the nation's attacks of 11 th September 2011 ( McElreath et al., 2017) .
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It was created by President Bush as an office in the white house after the 2011 attack. The office was to be headed by Tom Ridge. The office’s mission was to coordinate and develop the implementation strategies to ensure that the United States was secure from attacks and threats from terrorists. The office would also coordinate the efforts of the executive branch to detect, prepare for, protect against, recover from, and respond to terror attacks within the U.S. The formation of the office in the white house led to a debate advocating for the establishment of the Department of Homeland security (DHS) of the government. DHS started to exist in November 2002 ( Bullock, Haddow, & Coppola, 2011) .
Agencies Absorbed by Homeland Security
The intention that Bush had while creating the Homeland security department was to ensure that immigration agencies, anti-terrorism related agencies, and law enforcement agencies were brought together under one roof ( McElreath et al., 2017) . Among the 22 federal agencies and department that were moved under Homeland security include the secret services, coast guard, Federal protective service, the FBI’s National domestic preparedness office, the office of local preparedness, Citizenship and immigration services, the immigration and customs enforcement among others to name a few.
Evolving Role of Homeland Security
The department since 2001 has not only been involved in securing the nation against terrorist attacks but has been called on many times to tackle other situations. Such catastrophes that Homeland security has been involved in include border security and immigration, human trafficking, natural disasters like hurricane sandy in 2002 and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, and cybercrimes. Homeland security is also involved in planning security for the public events, for example, the President’s State of the Union address and the super bowl.
The Homeland Security Act
The Homeland security Act 2002 was enacted by the congress of the United States after the attacks by terrorists in Washington, Pennsylvania, and the city of New York in September of 2001. The Act was enacted with the mission of preventing attacks by terrorists within the U.S, minimize damages and help in recovery from the terror attacks, and reducing the vulnerabilities of the U.S to terrorist attacks ( Wise, 2002) .
This Act provides the HS’s secretary with the power to control and direct investigations that need information access that is needed in investigating and preventing terrorism. It is this AAct that established the DHS of the U.S.
Controversies and Criticism Related to HS
The HS department was under scrutiny almost when it was created. Criticisms came from terrorism experts, lawmakers, and even the public due to their issuance of confusing alerts. The terror alert system which used the colors green, yellow, orange, red, and blue to inform the public about terrorist threats in real-time was developed by Tom Ridge was criticized and ridiculed because it was not specific on how the public should react to threats that are elevated.
Homeland security has also been criticized for trying to go global. Friction has been experienced between European countries and the United States for deploying over 2000 immigration workers and special agents to over 70 countries. It was also hammered for not having a response plan to handle the disaster caused by the Katrina Hurricane in 2005, which was the most costly natural disaster ever to take place in America. Homeland Security has also been criticized for wastage of resources which was estimated by the congress to be around $15 billion in all contracts which failed as of 2008.
Cyber-security Division of Homeland Security
The National Cybersecurity Division (NCSD) of HS is the one responsible for risk management, requirements for cybersecurity, and risk management program in the United States. Usually, this division is the home to the national cyber alert system and the US-Cert. The Agency also opened a center named the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) in October 2009 which brings together all the governmental organizations responsible for protecting networked infrastructures and computer networks.
Homeland Security as a Study Field
HS is a field of study which came to existence after the September 2001 attack with different schools offering degree programs and certificate programs in homeland security, and the field is studied alongside management of emergency since they are similar in purpose and nature.
Homeland Expenditures
The 2019 Fiscal Year budget that was delivered by President Trump reflected that the administration prioritizes safety and security of the people of the U.S. In the 2019 budget $47.5 billion was requested for the DHS which was 7.8% increase equivalent to $3.5 billion from the 2018 fiscal year. The amount of money allocated to the Agency is aimed at securing the maritime and physical borders, advancing aviation and cybersecurity, and enforcing immigration laws to protect the Americans from people intending to harm them ( Reif, 2019) .
The Fiscal Year 2019 budget provided an estimate of $5.1 billion to ensure the removal operations, and enforcement, $1 billion is for the protection of computer networks and to address the vulnerabilities of a cyber system for Homeland security.
Conclusion
HS has played a key role in protecting the people of America against attacks such as terrorist attacks, as well as from other catastrophes such as Hurricanes. It is also responsible for handling presidential addresses and the Super bowl. The Agency has demonstrated its ability to safeguard the United States from harm and the IT systems of the federal government against cybersecurity risks despite the many criticisms that Homeland security has faced.
References
Bullock, J. A., Haddow, G. D., & Coppola, D. P. (2011). Introduction to homeland security: Principles of all-hazards risk management . Butterworth-Heinemann.
McElreath, D. H., Doss, D. A., Nations, R., Van Slyke, J., & Wigginton Jr, M. (2017). Introduction to homeland security . CRC Press.
Reif, K. (2019). Trump Budget Boosts Nuclear Efforts. Arms Control Today , 49 (3), 22-23.
The United States. Office of Homeland Security. (2002). National strategy for homeland security . DIANE Publishing.
Wise, C. R. (2002). Organizing for homeland security. Public Administration Review , 62 (2), 131-144.
