After months of abuses, violence and controversy, the public conversation is intensifying about the future of federal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and polls suggest there’s growing public appetite for abolishing ICE altogether.
But what about the larger federal agency that ICE is a part of?
Miles Taylor, who served as the Department of Homeland Security’s chief of staff during Donald Trump’s first term, told MS NOW last week that he now believes the Republican president has done irreparable damage to the department. Taylor told Nicolle Wallace on “Deadline: White House” that he had resisted calling for the dismantling of DHS, but he’s recently “come around” to the idea that it’s necessary.
He’s not alone. The Atlantic recently published a good report on the debate over the department’s future. It quoted Seth Stodder, who worked for Customs and Border Protection under George W. Bush and the DHS under Barack Obama. After seeing Trump-era abuses, Stodder concluded, “It makes me think that maybe DHS was a bad idea.”
Ben Rhodes, a veteran of the Obama White House, wrote an op-ed for The New York Times not only endorsing systemic DHS reforms, but also explaining how its powers can and should be reshuffled in the federal deck. From Rhodes’ piece:
[T]he rot goes deeper at the Department of Homeland Security, the behemoth that controls ICE, Customs and Border Protection (C.B.P.) and myriad other federal agencies, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Secret Service. Since its founding in 2002, a combination of organizational flaws and mission creep has allowed D.H.S. to evolve into the out-of-control domestic security apparatus we have today, one that views the very people it is supposed to protect as threats, not humans.
In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Congress and the Bush/Cheney administration believed it was necessary to create a new federal department focused on domestic security. The result was a mishmash of existing agencies and offices that were thrown together.
The same department that responds to earthquakes is the same one that protects the safety of the president and his family. The same department that includes the Coast Guard is the same one that deploys ICE agents.
The question isn’t whether the work of these agencies needs to be done. Rather, the question is whether the agencies would be more effective after a reorganization.
It’s hardly unreasonable to think the nation is due for a conversation about whether structural reforms are needed, especially as DHS struggles badly with its overwhelming responsibilities.
Rhodes’ op-ed added, “Unwinding this will take time and is unlikely during the Trump administration. But the time to start this debate is now.” Don’t be surprised if some aspiring Democratic presidential candidates start to focus on this debate in the coming months and years.
