DHS Mission Overlaps

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Mission Overlaps within the Department of Homeland Security

In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is primarily responsible for ensuring the safety of the general public. Aside from that, this department seeks to protect the U.S. from terrorists, and it ensures that the immigration and customs is properly managed, and that disaster is efficiently prevented, as the case may be. However, some have called for the shutting down of the DHS because mission areas overlap within this department. In line with this assertion, this paper will identify the possible mission areas or responsibilities that overlap within the DHS and at the same time, this paper will also provide recommendations for possible consolidation.

The …show more content…

However, mission overlap between various DHS agencies is evident in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Border Patrol. Ewing (2012) contended that since the creation of the DHS, this has been a concern most especially in the northern and southern border. As such, it is unsurprising that asylum officers are frustrated with how long asylum cases are processed. To make it worse, DHS officers of other agencies are unable to complete the essential paperwork relative to the case (Ewing, 2012). Aside from that, mission overlap is also evident between the Federal Bureau Investigation 's Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFS) and the fusion centers primarily supported by the DHS. This divided structure destroys the sharing information and intelligence which is vital in detecting and at the same time, preventing terrorist attacks within the U.S. territory (American Enterprise Institute, …show more content…

However, with its 22 agencies combined, there are mission areas that overlap within the department. One of which is the overlap between the Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security and Investigations and the U.S. Border Patrol. Aside from that, there is also an overlap between the Federal Bureau Investigation 's Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JITTFS) and the fusion centers primarily supported by the DHS. To resolve this, there is a need of the DHS to clearly establish its goals and priorities. Through this, the DHS is able to live up with how it is able to remove duplicative and redundant activities that drain the homeland security resources. Above all, the DHS can make sure that the general public is safe and free from any threats of terrorist attacks when it is domestically involved in the counterterrorism efforts, once the FBI is made as the lead agency of the