Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Michael C. Davies's avatar

"While many of those constituent parts should certainly be retained—those parts should be returned to their original homes. They did just fine there before 2002. The organization itself? I think we’ve seen well enough at this point that it needs to go."

Gotta disagree with this. First and foremost DHS had been debated and dreamed up long before it was implemented. It was only because of 9/11 and the proof that the various organs weren't talking to one another, and intentionally so, that 9/11 happened in the first place in many cases. Then Katrina proved it even more once again.

Moreover, many of those original institutions didn't belong where they sat--the Secret Service also doing money crimes investigations as well as POTUS protection all under Treasury made little sense. Where to put the Coast Guard is a perennial question that never gets properly resolved.

A) If you want to send them back to various Departments, that's fine, but you'll have to then create numerous Fusion Centers to ensure the information gets to where it should be going in real time. And second, you'll need all of these agencies to then run under a single technological umbrella to ensure each system talks to one another freely and accurately and without delay. That can be done, but damn its gonna be time consuming.

B) We can just get rid of all the different agencies and create a US Police Force or something like it, which just has the different functions of investigation, immigration, airport security, prisons, etc. within it. Which also allows lateral moves much easier. Obviously, if we survive Trump there is going to be little appetite for a nation police force that acts at the behest of the President. Which means that can be done, but only with iron clad, unbreakable, protections built in, starting with constitutional amendments, Congressional approval only for certain acts, new laws around police use and actions, and consequences for breaches such as auto impeachment etc.

C) Keep DHS as is, reform it as we wish, get rid of ICE, etc., add in new protections, const amendments, etc.,

any of these options are a massive step. But 'return to 2001' aint a good option. I can't stress than enough.

Expand full comment
Justin KB's avatar

On your first footnote, I think DHS is arguably deleterious to state capacity. If you imagine it continuing to serve as a more or less arbitrary instrument of the executive, it will rather quickly begin to cannibalize the functions and funding of other state agencies & departments (especially under the Trump administration’s belief that the executive can spend appropriations as it sees fit). I think that’s likely to begin very soon, to resolve the apparent problem of DHS overspending.

It wouldn’t take long before this degrades the state’s ability to operate effectively across the board.

Expand full comment
4 more comments...

No posts