Department of Homeland Security - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Department of Homeland Security Index / Organizations Transcripts Alan Bersin ...as chief diplomatic officer for the Department of Homeland Security [DHS], where he served for th... ...the Department of Homeland Security [ DHS ], where he served for the remainder o... ...it in this far-flung, relatively new Department of Homeland Security , there are eight different people wh... ...the ground different, but now you had DHS , which was a very different kind o... ...that had taken place, Nicky, was that DHS , for all of its difficulties, whic... ...broad a series of missions. But what DHS had accomplished, largely in respons... ...departments. But in 2003, when DHS was formed, it was in the Department o... ...Yes, to the extent that we saw not only DHS and the Department of Justice but als... ...of Health and Human Services], DHS , with a real coordinating element a... ...result of nine-eleven and the birth of DHS in that context, Customs and Borde... ...particular Mexico and Canada— DHS actually is the principal agency in th... ...that was implemented as a whole of DHS approach. I think this was the mai... ...the secretary were really the key. But DHS didn't control that legislation. ... ...Council. We really partnered on this, DHS , largely CBP. Chap Lawson was an MI... ...outreach for other agencies at DHS . I want to ask you about a few mor... ...this context. One of the things that DHS was able to do in terms of not onl... ...is a real theme that was developed at DHS and adopted, but partially, by th... ...would be good and the extent to which DHS is really very much involved in th... ...also chief diplomatic officer for the Department of Homeland Security where he served for the remainder o... ...had to deal with in your time at the Department of Homeland Security . You touched, last time, a little bi... ...all, Customs and Border Protection and DHS is responsible for border management... ...disease. So in the case of Ebola, we in DHS had a limited role geared primarily t... ...the international affairs section at DHS , and I think by and large it wa... ...Janet Napolitano was the secretary of DHS and, given her familiarity with th... ...was such a big part of, obviously, DHS 's overall mission and your work a... ...your approach to counterterrorism in DHS . Because of the nine-eleven moment... ...so to speak, and the creation of DHS two years afterwards in 2003... ...was the cornerstone mission of DHS and every component agency within DHS... ...DHS and every component agency within DHS . What we saw at the beginning of th... ...and the country, I think, looked to DHS , together with emergency management i... ...was incorporated into the operations of DHS and CBP in quite a remarkable way fro... ...into the international role that DHS came to play over time—we began t... ...the Obama administration, that the Department of Homeland Security , paradoxically enough, became th... ...but in terms of civilian deployment, DHS took on a role that had not been th... ...Was that a particularly intense time at DHS ? Did it feel different from othe... ...particularly true with regard to the Department of Homeland Security I think, but not uniquely so. The Stat... ...on many occasions. But in the case of DHS , the difficulties of relatively ne... ...on cybersecurity affecting your job in DHS ? It was pointed out in 2015, '1... ...of the prioritization of threats that DHS regularly conducts, and indeed the U... ...very much a priority for attention. DHS is responsible for protecting th... ...country. Those responsibilities caught DHS very much behind the curve. Th... ...office. I think the achievement that DHS , and perhaps generally for the Obam... ...trade side of the work that you did at DHS ? This was one of the challenges and... ...was the cornerstone mission of DHS and every component within it... ...given, to the counterterrorist roles of DHS and CBP. This was to th... ...really look to Secretary Johnson, the DHS secretary, as our secretary of state... ...of our foreign affairs actually involve DHS . And while we're engaged with th... ...with irregular migration that puts the DHS secretary in this role.” Tha... ...bit more about your work with Canada in DHS . Just speaking personally, I live... ...And that was largely the function of DHS . Obviously the State Department wa... ...Canada and the United States fell to DHS , and the relationship of the DH... ...to DHS, and the relationship of the DHS secretary to the minister of borde... ...close, and were. So the visits between DHS secretaries and their counterparts i... ...and the work of the United States and DHS in particular, the International Civi... ...also chief diplomatic officer for the Department of Homeland Security , where he served for the remainder o... ...today, about elections. You were in the Department of Homeland Security during the 2016 election. There's a lo... ...really forged very deep ties between DHS but also the American government an... ...for a second, let's talk about the Department of Homeland Security . You were there for all eight years... ...There's been a lot of debate around DHS about whether it needs to b... ...true within the immigration part of DHS around ICE and CBP. What are you... ...are your thoughts on how functional DHS is and whether or not it needs to b... ...situation changes, I think by and large DHS , with all of its faults, has actuall... ...missions caused by crises that only DHS actually is in a position to respond t... ...Protection. We saw the central role of DHS in responding to the Haitia... ...the continuing border crises always put DHS at the center. But I think we'r... ...of homeland security. And while DHS is only one part of the homelan... ...enterprise, that enterprise as well as DHS will change as a result of th... ...a fact of American life. And I think DHS came of age in a significant way unde... ...remember how many—the conversion of the Department of Homeland Security basically into a department o... ...on January sixth. All of this—again, DHS wasn't the only department injure... ...are not well founded. We do need a Department of Homeland Security , and we need it to be organized an... Show more... Marielena Hincapié ...the Hill, so on the Congress, or the Department of Homeland Security [DHS], and the DPC, the Domestic Polic... ...the Department of Homeland Security [ DHS ], and the DPC, the Domestic Polic... ...the administration, particularly at the Department of Homeland Security and at the White House. I can't tel... ...in a meeting with her at the Department of Homeland Security , where again, she was like, “No, no... ...that they call home. You've mentioned DHS a few times. I was wondering if yo... ...administration, particularly with the Department of Homeland Security , suggesting lots of different option... ...Obama administration, particularly the Department of Homeland Security , literally on a weekly basis. We ha... ...of a policy that was coming out of DHS . Absolutely. Yes. The program woul... ...But I'm curious how you understood DHS , given that it had all of thes... ...a fundamental dissonance, which is, the Department of Homeland Security was created at a time afte... ...see this shift in what's happening at DHS . Do you think that DHS, as constitute... ...happening at DHS. Do you think that DHS , as constituted in its 2003 form, ca... ...opportunities change when leadership at DHS changed, when Jeh Johnson came on a... ...changed, when Jeh Johnson came on as DHS secretary? Yes. So, I think, both. W... ...with his team, with people at the Department of Homeland Security , where we were able to get them t... ...House meetings, not as much at the DHS meetings. I feel like at DHS, it wa... ...at the DHS meetings. I feel like at DHS , it was often either the secretary an... ...to the comment I made earlier about the Department of Homeland Security . When you have Border Patrol, wh... Show more... Cecilia Muñoz ...happily throw President Obama and his DHS [Department of Homeland Security... ...throw President Obama and his DHS [ Department of Homeland Security ] secretary under the bus if the... ...but the White House team and the DHS team were in different places. We had ... ...House dictating enforcement policy to DHS , there was no way it was going t... ...concluded that we couldn't impose it on DHS , that we couldn't take it to them... ...decided not to move it forward because DHS wasn't on board, and she clearl... ...on board, and she clearly signaled that DHS was on board, so then that made th... ...that she had been working on this in DHS ? It was sort of in the ether, in th... ...the law. If you're the first woman DHS secretary, you start with a certai... ...mean, there's a 2012 report from DHS which demonstrates this. Something lik... ...were high was, one, Congress gave DHS a lot of money to enforce immigratio... ...good thinkers on the outside to advise DHS on how to do this, and they came u... ...great ideas. I'm sorry to say that DHS didn't take them nearly as seriously a... ...were coming up with good advice that DHS was not taking advantage of. Now, tha... ...Democratic president with a female DHS secretary, all of those things wer... ...the Secret Service wasn't going to call DHS , so we met them at a church across th... ...We had to explain, “We can't tell DHS who they should enforce the law; that'... ...They understandably were like, “ DHS shouldn't be deporting us at all.” An... ...think it's doable?” Janet was still the DHS secretary. I said, “We have to talk t... ...way. Secretary Jeh Johnson, the DHS secretary—I can't remember if it was a... ...enough and visible enough that when the Department of Homeland Security was created in the legislation, whic... ...in the legislation, which created DHS , a colleague of mine, a woman name... ...then a large number of folks, literally DHS would just take them to the bu... ...administration on military equipment. DHS and DOD essentially sell or donat... Show more... Stephanie Valencia ...Janet Napolitano, who was the incoming DHS [Department of Homeland Security... ...Napolitano, who was the incoming DHS [ Department of Homeland Security ] secretary; all of these heav... ...did not know I was not allowed to call DHS about an ongoing enforcement action. ... ...House about enforcement priorities at DHS , and there were memos written abou... ...we communicated all of those things to DHS . How they were actually implemente... Janet Napolitano ...Napolitano served as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] for four and a half years, fro... ...the Department of Homeland Security [ DHS ] for four and a half years, from 200... ...my colleagues had experienced vis-à-vis DHS . I didn't have a lot o... ...you talk about, the big challenge with DHS is that it's so many different agencie... ...So Chertoff arranged for people from DHS to travel to Phoenix. They als... ...[laughter] were reading materials for DHS , including a ten-page glossary o... ...which may not seem directly related to DHS , how that affected your early days an... ...our other desires were included. But at DHS , we weren't front and center on it... ...under the statute that establishes DHS , when there is a pandemic, th... ...there is a pandemic, the secretary of DHS is the federal coordinating official... ...because the Coast Guard, part of DHS , was on site. They said this rig ha... ...or something like that, again, DHS becomes the coordinating lead. And th... ...you worked more closely with? Or with DHS , are you pretty much engaged wit... ...Obviously a huge part of your brief at DHS . And in thinking about how to tackl... ...the four years that you were at DHS , and particularly that sort o... ...law enforcement. It's a big problem for DHS . Is the approach for DHS—well... ...problem for DHS. Is the approach for DHS —well, actually, to stay on what yo... ...of a law enforcement issue or more of a DHS issue? Yes, is it more of a DHS o... ...of a DHS issue? Yes, is it more of a DHS or local and state law enforcemen... ...issue? Well, I think where DHS is value add is being able to identif... ...I got the immediate leadership team of DHS on a conference call, secure conferenc... ...aware of that plot, and the role of DHS in that instant? Yes. So, that on... ...present in your time as secretary of DHS ? Yes, it was an ongoing concern. W... ...a tension between all the data that DHS collects about people and people'... ...inherent tension within the work that DHS was doing? Yes, there's no one big... ...I'm curious how you experienced that at DHS . Yes. So, that was interesting... ...are the first actions that you take as DHS secretary? I was in my office in DC... ...who wanted to point a finger at DHS , because the older brother had bee... ...imminent risk. That kind of thing puts DHS and law enforcement in a bind, wher... ...Napolitano served as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security for four and a half years. Before that... ...They never stabilized leadership at the Department of Homeland Security . Even today, a huge number of th... ...lack of clarity in many areas between DHS and DOJ. And when I say DOJ, I includ... ...for what in this area? From a DHS perspective, we had the Secret Service... ...into each other all the time. Then, DHS has a larger functional role in term... ...that you had during your time at DHS ? Were there particular threats o... ...the E stands for. When we came in at DHS —well, let me back up. When I wa... ...on immigration when I took over at DHS . When I took over at DHS, ICE was ... ...I took over at DHS. When I took over at DHS , ICE was a really problemati... ...Department of Justice, by the way, not DHS . We only found a handful. The politic... ...this. So in 2012, I asked the staff at DHS to see if we could, withou... ...follow up on a few things on DACA. When DHS was developing DACA, were you i... ...the policies you had pursued in DHS ? Not specifically. The immigrants... ...audience in the White House than at DHS itself. So they were trying to—I don'... ...forms of immigration on your mind as DHS ? Well, they came up in a differen... ...Trump administration, you'd think the Department of Homeland Security was really the Department of th... ...of the second half of your time at DHS . One of them takes us back to Arizona... ...this actually fell in your purview as DHS , but it does seem like something tha... ... The shooter was—it was not really a DHS matter, but because of my connectio... ...curious—and I know that this wasn't a DHS case. I know that things like Sand... ...Hook and other mass shootings weren't DHS cases. But you also did see things lik... ...conversation about climate change. Was DHS talking about these events in terms o... ...seen as something under the purview of DHS as well as other departments? Yes... ...Security has a plane. Why? Because the DHS secretary always has to be near secur... ...Obama had asked me to serve again. But DHS secretary—among other things, it's ... ...under wraps. Only a couple people at DHS even knew I was in the search. W... ...talk about this idea of reorganizing DHS , changing things around. Do you thin... ...and vacancies beneath the secretary. DHS is a management challenge to begi... ...stable leadership, and run a real Department of Homeland Security . I hear the talk about, we shoul... ...different agencies, and creating a DHS culture. When they created th... ...the Department of Defense. And I think DHS should be considered on the same tim... Show more... Tommy Vietor ...a big fight over the creation of the Department of Homeland Security . I was an intern at the time for Te... ...decided to pick a fight and say the Department of Homeland Security should exist, but the people who wor... ...apparatus of the government, the Homeland Security Department , they take extra precautions t... 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