Two former Cabinet secretaries called for the federal government to “rethink and reimagine” the Department of Homeland Security, arguing that it may be abandoning its counterterrorism efforts as President Donald Trump reshapes the agency to carry out his immigration crackdown.
Michael Chertoff and Jeh Johnson, who served as DHS secretaries under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, respectively, said in a joint interview with NBC News Thursday that the federal government must pursue a balance between enforcing domestic immigration laws and protecting the country from threats.
“I get concerned sometimes when I think that we’re spending most of our time worrying about gardeners and home health aides and getting them thrown out of the country, as opposed to focusing on people that actually are doing a lot of damage,” Chertoff said.
The Trump administration has redirected a massive amount of resources toward immigration and deportation operations, including State Department funds for countering foreign election interference and a DHS budget focused on weapons of mass destruction. Former DHS officials and Democratic lawmakers have said the massive boost toward immigration enforcement is deviating the department from Congress’ original intention.
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Johnson added in the interview that the Trump administration’s laser focus on immigration has become “more than a distraction.”
“I think it has overwhelmed the Department of Homeland Security,” he said. “I fear in many communities DHS has become a pariah, radioactive, the department of mass deportations, heartless, locking up kids, and that is one of the reasons why I think we need a reset.”
The department said in a statement to The Washington Sun that its focus on immigration only served to bolster its counterterrorism operations and blamed former President Joe Biden for endangering public safety through lax immigration enforcement.
“Counterterrorism and immigration enforcement go hand in hand,” the statement said. “Child exploitation, trafficking, terrorism, scams, and smuggling all have a nexus to illegal immigration.”
Bush established DHS through passage of the Homeland Security Act in 2002, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The law unified 22 federal departments and agencies into one Cabinet agency, largely emphasizing in its language that the goal was to “prevent terrorist attacks within the United States.”
Chertoff acknowledged that technology has drastically changed in the last few decades, which has provided greater capabilities to detect explosives or other weapons being brought onto a plane. Johnson said that terrorist threats have also evolved since then, too, and questioned whether DHS was in a position to navigate those changes.
“I always tell people,” Johnson said, “you’re safe until the moment you’re not.”
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