Earlier this week, First Lady Michelle Obama stopped by DHS Headquarters to say “Thank you” to the men and women of DHS for their recognized and often unrecognized work to secure America.
Security Debrief contributor, and former head of the DEA, Asa Hutchinson debated pro-legalization activists today on CNN as to whether legalizing drugs would reduce violence on the southern border.
In 2004, a task force chaired by homeland security experts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and The Heritage Foundation (and consisting of representatives from academia, research centers, the private sector, and congressional staffs) presented its conclusions in “DHS 2.0: Rethinking the Department of Homeland Security.” Their report evaluated the capacity of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to fulfill its mandate as set out in the Homeland Security Act of 2002.
The new DHS Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute’s first trip outside the country is to Canada this week. That makes perfect sense: Canada and Mexico are our two closest neighbors and for DHS as a border agency they are, manifestly, the two most important foreign countries to deal with.
What makes little sense, however, is that she is travelling to Ottawa by way of Buffalo, New York today. One can only hope this is not a sign of problematic things to come.
News reports indicate that DHS Secretary Napolitano will announce Alan Bersin as a Counselor to the Secretary today with the informal title of “Border Czar” focusing on the Southwest border and the escalating violence in the region. So who’s now responsible for particular operations in the Southwest region at DHS HQ? And isn’t this similar to the original structure of DHS — the “Border Czar” then was Asa Hutchinson, Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano visited El Paso, Texas, today to highlight major DHS efforts to crackdown on illegal immigration and cross-border trafficking, which resulted in more than one million apprehensions of illegal aliens in fiscal year 2008—including nearly 800,000 along the Southwest border. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed 369,000 illegal immigrants from the United States during the same time period, a 27 percent increase from fiscal year 2007.
How is the air cargo industry preparing itself to implement the U.S. Government’s mandate for screening 100 percent of all international inbound cargo aboard passenger aircraft by August 2010? That’s the number one question for the air freight industry as it faces the challenge of meeting the 2007 Homeland Security law. Listen to an expert panel of security and industry experts in this exclusive webcast discuss how the air cargo mandates will impact security and trade.
Based on an article in today’s New York Times, the Administration may begin sharing its views and strategy on implementing immigration reform as early as May. One can already envision the pro- and anti-immigration fronts mobilizing, in preparation for another drama-filled showing of the national divide on this issue.
Those working and living along the US-Mexican border are hopeful that the new attention of the Administration will finally solve the long simmering problems, improve security and eliminate any trade frictions. Secretary Napolitano is to be commended for making a new effort, outlining some innovative solutions, and going to Mexico to talk directly with her counterparts in the effort to coordinate a bilateral approach to this problem.
Sponsored by:
