Homeland Security

From border security to domestic extremism to keeping the skies safe for travelers, the Department of Homeland Security is tasked with guarding our gates and the American way of life. Does the agency see to domestic security based on our country’s needs, or what best serves the goals of the party in the White House?

There was a lot of strong talk after September 11 about securing the homeland. Now we have Park 51, the Ground Zero mosque, open for business just a short distance from the site of the Islamic terrorist attacks. Over a decade after 9/11 we still have problems identifying who is attending our flight schools and more states are handing out driver’s licenses to foreign nationals. The Southwest Border seems less secure than ever as children from Central America strain the Border Patrol’s resources and inflame state and local governments forced to deal with the problem. ICE agents have perhaps the worst job of all within the agency as they try to enforce laws that have become so unpopular that the word from the top is ignore them whenever possible.

Should domestic security be a partisan pursuit? After Janet Napolitano’s departure, new DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson is continuing the tradition of lip synching for the president and Democratic Party leaders.

Civil Candor’s Homeland Security category focuses on the discord between the agency’s job of protecting Americans and its increasingly larger role of backing White House policy. When the two tasks come into conflict, who wins and who loses?