Suspicion-less searching or retention of the vast array of personal data, documents, pictures and communications typically stored on a traveler's laptop or other electronic storage device could also have a chilling effect on the free exchange of ideas and beliefs.

Behavioral Profiling. Another dubious DHS program that is justly being criticized as an ineffective waste of resources with serious implications for the rights of innocent travelers is the Transportation Security Administration's behavioral assessment program, Screening Passengers by Observation Technique SPOT.

Like the suspicious activity reporting program, SPOT is based on the theory that observable behavioral and appearance indicators can be used to detect terrorists and other threats to aviation before they act. In fact, GAO reported that behavioral detection officers referred , travelers to secondary inspection without ever identifying a terrorist, while at least 16 individuals allegedly involved in terrorism plots moved at least 23 different times through eight airports where the SPOT program has been implemented.

In addition to the unnecessary secondary screening of tens of thousands of innocent passengers, profiled based on their appearance and behavior, flawed assumptions about what is "suspicious" has led to illegal detentions of travelers based on their mere possession of Arabic flash cards or their possession of a few thousand dollars in cash.

Untested behavioral detection theories pose a serious risk to civil liberties, because these behaviors are so commonplace they open the door to suspicion based on pre-conceived biases. Targeting Peaceful Political Groups.

In addition, rapidly evolving or emerging operating domains such as cyberspace and the Arctic are demanding new approaches and models for how DHS partners to achieve homeland security objectives.

Description: DHS operates within a dynamic environment at home and abroad. The inherently transnational nature of homeland security missions necessitates a strong DHS international affairs enterprise that provides compatible visions of homeland security globally, a consistent and mutually beneficial cooperation with foreign partners, and an international footprint that maximizes mission effectiveness and return on investment.

We will pursue the following strategies to strengthen the DHS international affairs enterprise in support of homeland security missions:. Description: Technology and homeland security are inextricably linked. A vast array of interdependent information technology networks, systems, services, and resources enable communication, facilitate travel, power our homes, run our economy and provide essential government services. These systems provide enormous benefits to our society and economy, but they also create new risks and vulnerabilities.

DHS must endeavor to keep pace with technology and leverage research and development toward homeland security goals. Description: In an era of decreasing budgets and resources, partners across the Department must strive to find and develop innovative solutions for training, exercising, and evaluating capabilities.

Achieving baseline proficiency and maintaining high levels of readiness in homeland security-related individual and collective skills and knowledge are critical to a unified partnership of law enforcement, first responders, and other front-line operators.

We will pursue the following strategies to train and exercise frontline operators and first responders:. Description: To support priority security requirements in a sustainable way, we must become more efficient and effective across a large and federated structure. As a Department, we must eliminate duplicative processes, develop common platforms, and purchase single solutions. In addition, the safety and security of our country can only be achieved through the hard work and dedication of our employees, with a diverse array of backgrounds, experiences, skills, and ideas.

Our workforce serves as the foundation to ensure continued growth of our collective ability to prevent and respond to the threats facing the nation.

An Agency Priority Goal is a near-term result or achievement that agency leadership wants to accomplish within approximately 24 months that relies predominantly on agency implementation as opposed to budget or legislative accomplishments. Click below to see this agency's FY Priority Goals. Combatting Transnational Criminal Organizations.

Statement: Decrease the ability of targeted transnational criminal organizations to conduct illicit activities impacting the southern border and approaches region of the United States. There is no single structure under which transnational organized criminals operate; they vary from hierarchies to clans, networks, and cells, and may evolve to other structures. The region includes approximately 2, miles of land border with Mexico, 3, miles of coastline along California, the Gulf of Mexico, and Florida, as well as the airspace spanning U.

This threat is based on their ability to generate massive illicit profits, which they have been known to use to suborn public officials and law enforcement, and perpetuate drug-related violence and other crimes, such as kidnappings and extortion. Customs and Border Protection, U. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U. Coast Guard, and to prioritize and target threat streams operating in the Southern Border and Approaches region, as well as combat TCO activity and splinter organizations present within the U.

Daily actions are taken to counter and degrade threats posed by TCOs, but true disruptions and dismantlements of operations are hard won battles. Disruptions and dismantlements incapacitate threats from targeted TCOs, represent the best and most enduring successes against these criminal organizations, and demonstrate gains to border security made possible through coordinated law enforcement campaigns.

Since new threats continuously present themselves, new lists are created throughout each year that targets the highest priority threats. Enhance Disaster Preparedness and Response. By September 30, , 70 percent of states and territories will achieve an intermediate or above proficiency toward meeting the targets established through their Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment THIRA.

Description: FEMA continues to allocate resources to supplement whole community investment to prepare for the greatest challenge in emergency management—a catastrophic disaster. In order to successfully respond to and recover from a catastrophic event, the whole community, including FEMA, state and local governments, and individuals that may be affected, need to build and sustain capabilities and implement the National Preparedness System to achieve the National Preparedness Goal of a secure and resilient Nation.

Strengthen aviation security counterterrorism capabilities by using intelligence driven information and risk-based decisions. Enforce and administer our immigration laws through prioritized detention and removal of criminal aliens. Ensure resilience to disasters by strengthening disaster preparedness and response capabilities. Skip to main content. Primary tabs View active tab Show Changes.

Mission: The Department of Homeland Security will: Prevent terrorism and enhance security; Secure and manage our borders; Enforce and administer our immigration laws; Safeguard and secure cyberspace; and Strengthen national preparedness and resilience. What are Themes? Themes list the issue or policy areas that are used to group similar goals and objectives. National Defense.

Each objective is tracked through a suite of performance goals, indicators and other evidence that facilitate planning, management, reporting, and evaluation. Agency Priority Goals are a limited number of specific performance targets, usually 2—8, that advance progress toward longer-term outcomes. Agency Priority Goals are near-term results or achievements that leadership wants to accomplish within approximately 24 months.

These goals rely predominantly on agency implementation as opposed to budget or legislative accomplishments. Success Stories What are Success Stories? Success Stories highlight the impact agencies are having using performance management tools on helping them better achieve their mission. Overview The Department of Homeland Security has a vital mission : to secure the nation from the many threats we face.

Performance Data Verification and Validation Process The Department recognizes the importance of collecting complete, accurate, and reliable performance data since this helps determine progress toward achieving program and Department goals and objectives.

Performance Measure Checklist for Completeness and Reliability The Performance Measure Checklist for Completeness and Reliability is a means for Component Performance Improvement Officers PIOs to attest to the quality of the information they are providing in our performance and accountability reports.

The Department worked to ensure the broadest possible outreach to critical state, local, tribal and territorial partners as well as the general public, including through: Stakeholder call for comment events; Collaborative National QHSR Dialogue; and Stakeholder Executive Committee Meetings.

Strategic Goal: Mission 1: Prevent terrorism and enhance security. Statement: Prevent terrorism and enhance security. Goal 1. Statement: Prevent Terrorist Attacks Description: The Department remains vigilant to new and evolving threats in order to protect the Nation from a terrorist attack. We will pursue the following strategies to prevent terrorist attacks: Analyze, fuse, and disseminate terrorism information by sharing information with, and utilizing threat analysis alongside, stakeholders across the homeland security enterprise.

We remain committed to integrating critical data sources, such as those for biometric data, by consolidating or federating screening and vetting operations.

We will also continually increase and integrate domain awareness capabilities, as well as improve our ability to fully utilize vast amounts of intelligence and other information—the so-called "big data" challenge—while rigorously protecting privacy and civil rights and civil liberties. Deter and disrupt operations by leveraging the intelligence, information sharing, technological, operational, and policy-making elements within DHS to facilitate a cohesive and coordinated operational response.

We will also develop intelligence sources and leverage research and analysis to identify and illustrate the tactics, behaviors, and indicators potentially associated with violent extremism as well as factors that may influence violent extremism, and jointly develop with federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners training for frontline law enforcement officers on behaviors that may be telling regarding violent extremist activity.

Strengthen transportation security by using a multi-layered risk-based approach to detect malicious actors and dangerous items at various entry and exit points in the travel and trade system. We will also improve coordination with foreign governments and stakeholders to expand pre-departure screening and enhance transportation security operations among willing partners to mitigate risks from overseas.

Counter violent extremism by: 1 supporting community-community-based problem solving and integration efforts, as well as local law enforcement programs; and 2 working with our partners to share information with frontline law enforcement partners, communities, families, and the private sector about how violent extremists are using the Internet and how to protect themselves and their communities.

Priority Goal: Strengthen aviation security counterterrorism capabilities by using intelligence driven information and risk-based decisions. We will pursue the following strategies to prevent and protect against the unauthorized acquisition or use of chemical biological, radiological, and nuclear materials and capabilities: Anticipate chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear emerging threats by identifying and understanding potentially dangerous actors, technologies, and materials, and prioritizing research and development activities including: 1 analyses of alternative technology options; 2 assessments of complex issues such as the relative risk of different chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats; 3 experimentation and operational test and evaluation of technologies proposed for acquisition; 4 detailed technical characterization of potential biological threat organisms; 5 the creation of consensus standards that enable cost-effective progress across many fields; and 6 the determination of nuclear material characteristics through nuclear forensics techniques.

Identify and interdict unlawful acquisition and movement of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear precursors and materials by leveraging investigative and enforcement assets towards domestic and international movement of these materials and by engaging in information sharing with all stakeholders to monitor and control this technology.

Detect, locate, and prevent the hostile use of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear materials and weapons by 1 combining authorities and assets with other departments and agencies; 2 building the U.

To this last point, DHS will deploy technologies that enable early detection of biological agents prior to the onset of symptoms, pursue more rapid responder capabilities, and increase the capacity and effectiveness of local public health, medical, and emergency services.

Protect key leaders, facilities, and National Special Security Events by 1 working with partners across the homeland security enterprise to coordinate intelligence, information sharing, security, and response resources; 2 protecting the President, the Vice President, visiting heads of state, major Presidential candidates, and other designated protectees; 3 protecting federal facilities, employees, and visitors; and 4 assessing risk and coordinating support to partners during major special events across the Nation through the Special Events Assessment Rating.

FY Strengthen aviation security counterterrorism capabilities by using intelligence driven information and risk-based decisions.

The Coast Guard provides perhaps the best example, balancing its search and rescue missions with its clear and tailored drug and migrant interdiction roles. CBP and the TSA are primarily focused on enabling the safe and secure movement of goods and people and have narrow law enforcement roles that enable these primary missions. CBP focuses on keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the United States while facilitating lawful travel and trade.

Even the Secret Service, which focuses largely on protecting elected leaders, plays an important role in ensuring public safety at National Special Security Events, playing a safety and services role that is critical to working with local communities across the nation on events of critical or high-visibility importance.

The FPS protects federal facilities, their occupants, and visitors by providing law enforcement and protective security services. While it is beyond the scope of this report to detail where every subcomponent within DHS belongs, components that are primarily focused on investigating violations of federal laws should most naturally live within the FBI, the lead agency charged with investigating criminal activity.

Likewise, while CAP has long argued that the nation should move away from a system based on large-scale immigration detention and toward alternatives such as community supervision, 80 for the limited immigration detention that would remain, it would be more effective to have this function merged with, for example, the Bureau of Prisons BOP , also under the DOJ.

Had these functions been merged under the BOP when the Obama administration announced that it would end the use of private prisons in DOJ facilities, 81 it would have likely meant a similar end to some of the most problematic facilities in the immigration context as well. CAP recommends that DHS components that are primarily or exclusively focused on enforcing federal laws should be transferred to other federal departments.

The Biden administration and Congress have the opportunity to transform DHS into an agency that provides much greater value to the American people and those who visit or seek safety or opportunity here. The current administration and Congress will need to work together for longer-term changes to institutionalize reforms.

But with shared objectives in gaining a more effective agency that can deliver for and to the American people, it can be done. This recalibration of department activities will better fulfill the unmet needs of Americans and those who live, study, work, travel, and seek safety here. It will also put the department and its workforce in a better position to focus on the needs that only DHS can meet given its flexible authorities and unique capacity to respond to a range of issues that fall between the gaps of responsibilities of other federal departments and agencies.

This study makes the case that DHS should be more active in the areas where it is the most effective player within the federal bureaucracy and less so where its efforts are duplicative of other agencies. The current administration should evaluate how much of this realignment can be done within existing statutory functions and what requires congressional assistance and legislation. To effectively manage the bureaucracy and oversee the recalibration of the department mission, the Biden administration should work with Congress to increase resources to the DHS secretary and move away from the hyperdecentralization that characterizes its current structure.

As the department expands what it means to keep the nation secure, DHS should reimagine its role in protecting personal information and privacy. At a minimum, this would mean elevating the CRCL officer—even while remaining operationally independent to oversee complaints related to civil rights and civil liberties—to an assistant secretary level, with a seat at the management table, to be able to more directly influence agencywide decision-making.

A more ambitious approach would involve making the protection of personal information and privacy a core DHS mission, assigning DHS the lead federal agency for protecting the privacy of U. Efforts are underway to improve departmentwide workforce satisfaction, measured through yearly index scores such as the inclusion and employee engagement indexes. This initiative would be part of efforts to develop a pipeline of leaders, encourage creativity and innovation, and drive a cultural shift within the department toward its new service-oriented framework.

The initiative should consider what changes might be needed in human capital and launch programs to realign the future workforce accordingly. For example, CBP could greatly benefit from specialized training of its Border Patrol agents to initiate a cultural change of its workforce and prepare them to handle asylum-seekers at the border humanely and fairly.

At the same time, DHS should step back from roles where it is neither needed nor best suited. DHS should reduce its counterterrorism investigative and intelligence analysis activities, as described below, and focus its efforts where it has unique responsibilities and authorities: managing the border, countering disinformation, countering violent white supremacy, and investing in evidence-based prevention approaches. While DHS can contribute to efforts to thwart organized crime and bring criminal actors to justice, the DOJ should continue to serve as the lead federal agency for TOC.

It should invest its unique capacity to analyze and contextualize threats to land, sea, and air borders and ports of entry and to deliver intelligence to state, local, tribal, and territorial partners.

As DHS as a whole intensifies focus on safety and service, law enforcement efforts should occur within this context rather than as the primary mission. Consistent with this emphasis—and with the affirmative vision that CAP previously put forth of a more fair, humane, and workable immigration system that would rebalance immigration enforcement—ICE is primarily a law enforcement agency, and as such its responsibilities should be transferred out of DHS.

DHS also plays a critical role in adjudicating immigration benefits and promoting naturalization, which are the primary functions of USCIS. With these adjustments, DHS will be able to execute a clear mission, which includes delivering immigration and asylum services effectively, honoring historic American values as a refuge for those seeking sanctuary from repression and injustice while keeping the nation safe.

The Department of Homeland Security should play an important role in addressing the challenges and threats of today and tomorrow, and it should do so in a way that upholds American ideals and provides value to those who live, study, work, travel, and seek shelter here. Recalibrating the DHS mission would empower the agency and its workforce to play a more effective role in the federal bureaucracy.

It would also enable DHS to further build partnerships between the federal government and counterparts in state and local government and the private sector, if properly managed with safeguards to protect civil liberties and privacy.

Finally, it would ensure that DHS is most effectively positioned to solve national challenges. Moving toward the safety and services model outlined in this report would allow DHS to calibrate its activities within a new mission maximally focused on delivering value to America.

It would also provide a framework through which officials could then turn to reforming the structure of DHS, to determine which elements of the agency need to stay within DHS and which may better fit within other parts of the bureaucracy. Mara Rudman is the executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress. Philip E. Wolgin is the acting vice president of Immigration Policy at the Center.

This project and report reflect the contributions of many stakeholders, including former and current government officials, policy experts, and civil society members. We are sincerely thankful for their support.

This report also reflects the collective work of numerous researchers, analysts, and experts across the Center for American Progress. Lawrence J. Korb , Kaveh Toofan. Alexandra Schmitt , Siena Cicarelli. Vassilis Ntousas , James Lamond. Peter Gordon Director, Government Affairs. Madeline Shepherd Director, Government Affairs. In this article. Communicating : DHS should manage information sharing and public disclosures of intelligence between federal entities and their local counterparts through a leading role that would be a valuable public service.

Facilitating: DHS should continue to facilitate lawful international trade and travel, ensure that U. Welcoming: DHS should provide efficient and respectful service to aspiring citizens and other immigrants and emphasize its unique role in welcoming the people who immigrate to, visit, or seek refuge in the United States. Helping: DHS should expand its existing capacity on disaster relief and emergency management and invest in new, flexible headquarters and regional capabilities that can address a wide range of emergencies and situations.

DHS should dial down its strategic focus in the following areas, bringing them into balance with its other priorities: Protecting: DHS should coordinate cybersecurity and critical infrastructure to bridge the gap between public and privately owned infrastructure and ensure that federal protection efforts can effectively extend to all sectors across the country.

Securing: DHS should maintain its core objective of securely, efficiently, and humanely managing our air, land, and maritime borders. Preventing: DHS should focus on the increasing prevalence of domestic challenges and borderless threats while maintaining its important role in preventing attacks against the United States at home and abroad.

Enforcing: DHS should conduct a recalibration of its enforcement activities within broader department goals of safety and service and move law enforcement activities that are not aligned to this mission to other areas of the federal government that are better suited to these functions. DHS should strategically recalibrate its priorities around a safety and services model rather than a threat-oriented model. Diagnosing DHS: Foundational problems, unfulfilled needs, and study findings.

Foundational problems Since the creation of DHS, challenges related to the foundations of the department and its operations have inhibited its performance. Overly broad authorities and harmful overreach Another challenge that has affected DHS from the outset—and grew increasingly problematic during the Trump administration—is that it was given broad and at times unclear legal authorities that it has used in ways that have harmed the public it is supposed to serve.

Low employee morale and a demoralized workforce DHS also suffers from low employee morale and poor satisfaction among its workforce: It ranked dead last among U. Unfulfilled needs: Where DHS is missing in action today Recognizing the challenges DHS faces, the department remains critical to the safety and well-being of many.

A leading federal emergency response system Federal emergencies will continue to pose significant threats to Americans and their way of life. A fair, workable, and humane approach to border management Factors such as devastating hurricanes and droughts due to climate change, political unrest, and gang violence, especially in Central American countries, have translated to a high number of migrants, including large numbers of families and unaccompanied children, seeking asylum in the United States.

A truly integrated cyber and critical infrastructure capacity Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure are increasingly common and could grind the U. Table 2 provides a complete breakdown of the total budget authority outlined in Figure 1 for all DHS components, arranged by FY enacted net discretionary budget authority.

Some DHS components do have access to funding beyond the budget authority controlled for reprogramming through the detailed tables appropriations committee reports. Much of DHS's mandatory spending is not reflected in these tables. This includes spending on flood insurance claims, as well as trust funds for the Coast Guard and the Secret Service. Likewise, the detailed tables do not reflect reimbursements between components for services provided, such as payments from partner agencies to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center for the cost of training programs.

Table 2. Source s: CRS analysis of P. Totals do not reflect the impact of rescissions. The "FY Request" column only reflects requests for annual appropriations. Includes net discretionary budget authority, offsetting collections, resources provided from prior-year appropriations, and resources covered by adjustments to discretionary spending limits.

Does not include mandatory spending or fees with permanent spending authority. Under the Trump Administration's FY budget, as in previous years, DHS also received budgetary resources through appropriations in permanent law, as well as reimbursements and transfers from other parts of the federal government. However, the DHS appropriations act is the primary vehicle through which Congress annually funds and directs the financial activities of the department. In accordance with appropriations committee practices, these totals do not include elements of annual funding covered by the disaster relief designation or overseas contingency operations designation.

These adjustments, established by the Budget Control Act of P. Supplemental appropriations measures often do not have their contents reflected in a concurrently produced table—therefore FY supplemental appropriations data are drawn directly from the supplemental appropriations acts.

For the DHS appropriations legislation, these have included funding designated as disaster relief and funding designated as supporting Overseas Contingency Operations.