The department of homeland security was established in 2001 when the Patriot Act was signed into law. The department was formed for the purported purpose of protecting the people of the US. The operations of the department have however been controversial, with critics asserting that its operations are costly and also infringe on civil rights rather than serving their original purpose. An examination of the current state of the department reveals that while serving its purpose, homeland security curtails the freedom of citizens.
To serve its purpose, task forces at the state and federal level employ various controversial methods in data collection that deny Americans their freedom. The patriot act enabled the department to carry out surveillance on individual data held by third parties without the individual’s knowledge or consent (Sutherland, 2014) . The act also allowed the government to access information about the origin and destination of communication (Robinson & Liu, 2013) . The civil liberties of law-abiding American citizens are infringed upon in the process of data collection.
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Homeland security spends huge amounts of taxpayers’ money, curtailing their freedom. The cost-benefit analysis of the department’s operations raises multiple controversies. The department gets a huge allocation of the national budget while many Americans struggle to meet their financial obligations, especially during recessions (Roberts , 2014) . The huge budget of the department strains the federal resources more than it helps in the protection of Americans.
An examination of homeland security shows that while serving its purpose, homeland security curtails the freedom of citizens. Freedom is curtailed in employing controversial methods of data collection and spending a large amount of taxpayers’ money, straining the available resources. The success of the agency will depend on the view of the Americans, who will continue supporting homeland security if they feel safer, and withdraw their support if they feel that it is limiting their freedom.
References
Roberts , P. S. (2014). The Lessons of Civil Defense Federalism for the Homeland Security Era. Journal of Policy History, 26 (3), 354-383.
Robinson, S. E., & Liu, X. (2013). Explaining Popular Trust in the Department of Homeland Security. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 23 (3), 713-733.
Sutherland, D. W. (2014). Homeland Security and Civil Liberties: Preserving America's Way of Life. Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy, 19 (1), 289-310.
