Primer on the US Department of Homeland Security

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaac Kfir
Keyword(s):  
Homeland Security ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
The Us

Evidence-Based Patient Decontamination: An Integral Component of Mass Exposure Chemical Incident Planning and Response

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam D. Leary ◽  
Michael D. Schwartz ◽  
Mark A. Kirk ◽  
Joselito S. Ignacio ◽  
Elaine B. Wencil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Multiple Time ◽  
Chemical Toxicity ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
The Us ◽  
Patient Health ◽  
Health Support ◽  
Health Demands

AbstractDecontaminating patients who have been exposed to hazardous chemicals can directly benefit the patients’ health by saving lives and reducing the severity of toxicity. While the importance of decontaminating patients to prevent the spread of contamination has long been recognized, its role in improving patient health outcomes has not been as widely appreciated. Acute chemical toxicity may manifest rapidly—often minutes to hours after exposure. Patient decontamination and emergency medical treatment must be initiated as early as possible to terminate further exposure and treat the effects of the dose already absorbed. In a mass exposure chemical incident, responders and receivers are faced with the challenges of determining the type of care that each patient needs (including medical treatment, decontamination, and behavioral health support), providing that care within the effective window of time, and protecting themselves from harm. The US Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Homeland Security have led the development of national planning guidance for mass patient decontamination in a chemical incident to help local communities meet these multiple, time-sensitive health demands. This report summarizes the science on which the guidance is based and the principles that form the core of the updated approach. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;0:1–7)

Secondary ensnarement: Surveillance systems in the service of punitive immigration enforcement

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-482
Author(s):  
Ana Muñiz
Keyword(s):  
Homeland Security ◽  
Information Collection ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Immigration Enforcement ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Secondary Information ◽  
Mass Surveillance

Relatively little scholarly work explores US interior immigration enforcement through a surveillance lens. This article asks how US immigration authorities have designed and deployed surveillance systems to facilitate enforcement practices, specifically regarding the construction of immigrant subjects and interior apprehension and deportation. Drawing upon a qualitative analysis of 291 Department of Homeland Security documents authored between 1995 and 2017, this paper examines the evolution of a primary immigration enforcement information system currently called the Enforcement Integrated Database. The analysis reveals that over the course of 33 years, the US Government has transformed Enforcement Integrated Database from a case management system into a mass surveillance system. Specifically, I argue that immigration authorities have deployed secondary information collection in the Enforcement Integrated Database to expand (1) the volume of people under surveillance, called ensnarement targets and (2) the opportunities to categorize people as criminal or dangerous, called ensnarement opportunities. As a result, Department of Homeland Security amplifies punitive enforcement against broader populations of noncitizens and potentially, citizens as well.

scholarly journals Introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 391-405
Author(s):  
Nathan K. Hensley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Legal Guardian ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Customs And Border Protection ◽  
Physical Custody

“We saw no issues,” reports the Department of Homeland Security in a self-study of its practices for detaining children at the US–Mexico border, “except one unsanitary bathroom.” The system is working as it should; all is well. “CBP [Customs and Border Protection] facilities we visited,” the report summarizes, “appeared to be operating in compliance with the 2015 National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention, and Search.” A footnote on page 2 of the September 2018 document defines the prisoners at these facilities, the “unaccompanied alien children,” as “aliens under the age of eighteen with no lawful immigration status in the United States and without a parent or legal guardian in the United States ‘available’ to care and [provide] physical custody for them.” Available is in scare quotes. This tic of punctuation discloses to us that the parents of these children have been arrested and removed. They are not available, and cannot take physical custody of their children, because they themselves are in physical custody. In a further typographical error, the word “provide” has been omitted: the children are without a parent or legal guardian in the United States “available” to care and physical custody for them. The dropped word turns “physical custody” into a verb and sets this new action, to physical custody, in tense relation to “care.”

'Deepfakes' could irreparably damage public trust

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
National Security ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Digital Videos ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Senate

Subject Deepfake technology. Significance The US Senate on October 24 passed an act that requires the Department of Homeland Security to publish a yearly report on how ‘deepfake’ technology may be used to harm national security. Deepfakes are believable digital videos, audios or photos created using artificial intelligence (AI) to portray a person saying or doing something that the person never said or did, or portraying an event as real that never took place. The level of sophistication of this technology has leapfrogged over the past two years, raising a wide spectrum of concerns. Impacts A market for anti-deepfake verification technologies will emerge. Lawmakers will need to define the lines between art/entertainment and malicious deepfakes. Upcoming elections will be impacted by the existence of this technology.

DHS Overestimates Visa Overstays for 2016; Overstay Population Growth Near Zero During the Year

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Warren
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
Border Crossings ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
The Us ◽  
Waiver Program ◽  
Border Crossers

For years, noncitizens who fail to abide by the terms of their nonimmigrant (temporary) visas were not widely recognized as major contributors to the US undocumented population. Yet since 2005, the ratio of overstays to illegal entries across the border has increased rapidly as the number of border crossings dropped to 1970s levels. As a result, the inflow of overstays has exceeded border crossers for nearly a decade. These developments highlight the importance of accurate and timely estimates of overstays.In 2017, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report, Fiscal Year 2016 Entry/Exit Overstay Report, showing estimates of overstays, by country, for the 50.4 million nonimmigrants admitted in fiscal year 2016 (DHS 2017). At the end of the fiscal year, DHS had not verified the departure of 628,799 nonimmigrants.[1]The Center for Migration Studies (CMS) compared the DHS overstay estimates to CMS’s estimates of the number of undocumented residents that arrived in the past few years. Data were available to make the comparisons for 133 countries; these countries account for 99 percent of all overstays. The major findings include the following:For 90 of the 133 countries, the DHS and CMS estimates differ by less than 2,000, and the correlation between the estimates for those 90 countries is .97, which indicates a very close mutual relationship.The DHS estimates of overstays for Canada are far too high.The DHS estimates greatly exceed the CMS estimates for about 30 countries, half of them participants in the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP).[2]Slightly more than half of the 628,799 reported to be overstays by DHS actually left the country but their departures were not recorded.After adjusting the DHS estimates to take account of unrecorded departures, as well as departures in 2016 of overstays that lived here in 2015, overstay population growth was near zero in 2016.Thus, while overstays account for a large percentage of the newly undocumented, they represent less than half (44 percent) of the overall undocumented population, and they are less likely than illegal border crossers to be long-term residents.The country-specific figures shown here should help DHS focus its efforts on improving the verification of departures of temporary visitors.    Finally, these comparisons indicate that the DHS estimates do not provide a sound basis for making decisions about admission to, or continuation in, the VWP. [1] The 628,799 figure refers to nonimmigrants that arrived in 2016 and whose departure had not been verified by the end of 2016. Thus, as demonstrated in this paper, it includes nonimmigrant admissions whose departure was not verified and actual overstays.[2] The US Visa Waiver Program (VWP) is described at  https://www.dhs.gov/visa-waiver-program, as follows: “The VWP, which is administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in consultation with the State Department, permits citizens of 38 countriesto travel to the United States for business or tourism for stays of up to 90 days without a visa. In return, those 38 countries must permit US citizens and nationals to travel to their countries for a similar length of time without a visa for business or tourism purposes.”

The future of emergency management

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane A. Bullock ◽  
George D. Haddow
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Management ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Organizational Changes ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
The Past ◽  
Emergency Managers ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Future ◽  
Us Federal Government

The discipline of emergency management (EM) is at a critical crossroads. Emergency managers around the world are faced with new threats, new responsibilities, and new opportunities. This paper examines the organizational changes made by the US federal government in shaping the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and presents three key lessons learned during the past decade that could guide emergency planners as they design and manage EM organizations of the future.

Cybersecurity: The Forever Problem

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (07) ◽  
pp. 26-29
Author(s):  
Blake Wright
Keyword(s):  
Homeland Security ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Oil Field ◽  
University Of Southern California ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Technology Changes ◽  
The Us ◽  
The University

The oil and gas business has become as much about bytes as barrels in recent years. Artificial intelligence, the internet of things (IoT), big data, and the ongoing digitization of the industry have not only made it a more-efficient machine but also a target to unscrupulous sorts looking to confound, cash in, and move on. As more information comes forward regarding the May 2021 ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, it appears to have been a cash grab with the knock-on effect of physically crippling the company’s flow of fuel to East Coast states. The outage was never the goal, but what it if had been? That question, or one similar, was part of what got the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) involved and the subsequent announcement of a Security Directive that will require critical-pipeline owners and operators to report confirmed and potential cybersecurity incidents to the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and to designate a cybersecurity coordinator, to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It will also require critical-pipeline owners and operators to review their current practices as well as to identify any gaps and related remediation measures to address cyber-related risks and report the results to the Transportation Security Administration and CISA within 30 days. The bad guys made off with over $4 million in the Colonial attack; however, the US Department of Justice was able to recover about $2.3 million in the cryptocurrency paid by the pipeline operator. But the Colonial breach wasn’t a first for the oil and gas industry, and it certainly won’t be the last. As more of the oil field comes online, it creates additional access points for would-be villains to pounce. What makes the cybersecurity threat unique compared to other obstacles in the industry is that it is likely unsolvable, only manageable. “This will likely be a forever problem,” said Donald Paul, research professor of engineering at the University of Southern California and former CTO at Chevron. “It’s not like you can do something and fix it all, because ultimately, as the technology changes, as you add more digital systems, more vulnerabilities show up, and then the bad guys figure out how to crack them. It’s an ongoing process.”

Fixing a Failure to Identify Intelligence in the Domestic Setting: Aligning Collection and Analysis to Address an All-Hazards Mission

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren E. Tromblay
Keyword(s):  
Homeland Security ◽  
Interagency Collaboration ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Federal Bureau ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Fusion Centers ◽  
Task Forces ◽  
The Us ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Domestic Setting

AbstractThe US’ domestically-oriented, homeland security enterprise lacks a structure that facilitates an all-hazards intelligence mission. An all-hazards mission must account for both positive and negative intelligence information. The primary hubs for interagency collaboration and collection, within the US, are the Department of Homeland Security-funded state and local fusion centers and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s joint terrorism task forces (JTTFs). Both of these entities focus on negative intelligence. The FBI JTTFs focus on one element of negative intelligence, the DHS fusion centers have unfocused, but still negative, missions, due to bureaucratic realities. Meanwhile, other government agencies, notably the CIA’s National Resources Division and even other elements of the FBI are engaged in uncoordinated collection, an activity that threatens to bring even more disorganization to the homeland-security enterprise. Rather than creating yet another agency, the strengths of both the JTTFs and the fusion centers should be leveraged, in conjunction with other domestically operating collectors, to establish new platforms, using fusion centers as a backbone, staffed with a service of joint duty personnel.

scholarly journals DHS Overestimates Visa Overstays for 2016; Overstay Population Growth near Zero during the Year

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 768-779
Author(s):  
Robert Warren
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
Border Crossings ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
The Us ◽  
Waiver Program ◽  
Border Crossers ◽  
Country Specific

For years, noncitizens who fail to abide by the terms of their nonimmigrant (temporary) visas were not widely recognized as major contributors to the US undocumented population. Yet since 2005, the ratio of overstays to illegal entries across the border has increased rapidly as the number of border crossings dropped to 1970s levels. As a result, the inflow of overstays has exceeded border crossers for nearly a decade. These developments highlight the importance of accurate and timely estimates of overstays. In 2017, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report, Fiscal Year 2016 Entry/Exit Overstay Report, showing estimates of overstays, by country, for the 50.4 million nonimmigrants admitted in fiscal year 2016 (DHS 2017). At the end of the fiscal year, DHS had not verified the departure of 628,799 nonimmigrants.1 The Center for Migration Studies (CMS) compared the DHS overstay estimates to CMS's estimates of the number of undocumented residents that arrived in the past few years. Data were available to make the comparisons for 133 countries; these countries account for 99 percent of all overstays. The major findings include the following: • For 90 of the 133 countries, the DHS and CMS estimates differ by less than 2,000, and the correlation between the estimates for those 90 countries is .97, which indicates a very close mutual relationship. • The DHS estimates of overstays for Canada are far too high. • The DHS estimates greatly exceed the CMS estimates for about 30 countries, half of them participants in the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP).2 • Slightly more than half of the 628,799 reported to be overstays by DHS actually left the country but their departures were not recorded. • After adjusting the DHS estimates to take account of unrecorded departures, as well as departures in 2016 of overstays that lived here in 2015, overstay population growth was near zero in 2016. • Thus, while overstays account for a large percentage of the newly undocumented, they represent less than half (44 percent) of the overall undocumented population, and they are less likely than illegal border crossers to be long-term residents. • The country-specific figures shown here should help DHS focus its efforts on improving the verification of departures of temporary visitors. • Finally, these comparisons indicate that the DHS estimates do not provide a sound basis for making decisions about admission to, or continuation in, the VWP.

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