The agency was put together to after the 9/11 tragedy to focus against attack’s to the American homeland …
Donald Trump….
The guy who had no political experience has looked for and found a agency the can be his ‘muscle’ for his political wants….
Immigration….
Domestic Protest….
Have been his tries…
Both have NOT worked out how he wanted in the long run…
It was never meant to be….
Nearly two decades later, Trump has changed that.
The president took office with immigration enforcement plans that placed DHS at the forefront of his domestic agenda. In the three and a half years since, the White House has run the department as an instrument of policy and politics, appointing openly partisan figures to its top leadership ranks where they serve in acting roles without the slightest pretense of a formal nomination.
Trump has demonstrated little interest in DHS beyond its monthly report of immigration arrests and the pace of construction on his border wall project, Homeland Security officials say. He has attempted to use the agency to advance the long-standing goals of immigration hard-liners, from a “Muslim ban” to family separations to threats of busing migrants to sanctuary cities governed by Democrats. And when the coronavirus pandemic attacked the country — triggering the biggest national crisis since the Sept. 11 attacks — DHS remained in a secondary role.
It was the president’s use of force in Portland last month that appeared to cross a line for DHS founders, who cringed at the department turning its powers inward against Americans.
“I wasn’t just disappointed — I was angry,” Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor who served as the department’s first secretary under President George W. Bush, said in an interview. “The president has perverted the mission of DHS.”
“Creating the perception that the department is a political arm of the president is an abuse I never thought I’d see,” Ridge said….
image…Federal officers and Portland riot police stand in tear gas while clearing the streets during early morning protests July 26 in Portland, Ore. (Paula Bronstein for The Washington Post)