I didn’t like the Department of Homeland Security from day one. It sounded too 1930s Germany, too scary, and was completely unnecessary. We already had the FBI, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, FEMA, and immigration agencies, all stuck into the new department. Civil libertarians at the time questioned the need. Former Senator Barbara Boxer, who voted for the agency, now says she regrets it. Recently she said, “Somehow, this has developed into the president’s private military.”
This past February the current head of the agency, Chad F. Wolf, announced on Fox News that New Yorkers were barred from enrolling in expedited air traveller programs because New York had barred immigration authorities from access to DMV records.
It was payback, and the courts have ruled the policy was illegal. It was Homeland Security personnel who were sent into Portland with no identifying badges. It was the Department of Homeland Security that separated kids from their parents at the border. Almost all the high officials in the Department are “acting,” which means they can be fired by the President if they don’t do his bidding.
As for sending personnel into cities with Democratic mayors, Wolf said on Fox News, “I don’t need invitations by state mayors or state governors to do our job. We’re going to do that whether they like us there or not.”
Some information for this post is from Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Jesse McKinley, “Under Latest Chief, Homeland Security’s Mission Took a Political Turn,” New York Times, (August, 5, 2020), p. A16.
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