Restoring DHS: Bipartisan roots and public trust – The Hill

Opinion>Opinions – National Security

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill

Return the Homeland Security Department to its bipartisan roots

by Jane Harman, opinion contributor – 01/31/26 11:00 AM ET

In the early evening of Sept. 11, 2001, I stood with my colleagues on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and sang “God Bless America.” In that moment, we were not Democrats or Republicans. We were just Americans, determined to respond to all that had happened and ensure such an attack would never happen again. That bipartisan resolve produced two of the most significant reforms in a generation: the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence. I was one of the legislators who helped design them.

Today, the Department of Homeland Security is facing a grave crisis, with its enforcement agencies having killed two American citizens in Minneapolis this month. Public confidence in Homeland Security has collapsed, and congressional support for its embattled secretary, Kristi Noem, is eroding by the day.

A fight over Homeland Security funding brought the government to the brink of shutdown before a tentative two-week deal was reached Thursday but the fundamental crisis remains unresolved.

The solution is for the Department of Homeland Security to return to its bipartisan roots and embrace its mission of protecting America, rather than pursuing an agenda that has shattered public trust and caused the agency to drift from its core purpose.

The 9/11 Commission identified catastrophic failures that made the attacks possible. Intelligence agencies hoarded information. The CIA tracked two hijackers to Malaysia but never told the FBI they had entered the U.S. All 19 hijackers had entered on legal visas, many with applications containing detectable false statements. The verdict was damning: We had failed to connect the dots.

The Department of Homeland Security was one of two major reforms to ensure these failures would not be repeated. Immigration enforcement was placed within the new department because it is a national security function. The reforms were hard-fought, but we worked through our disagreements. The Senate passed the final legislation 90-9.

For more than two decades, the department operated as we intended, above partisan politics. Michael Chertoff was confirmed as secretary 98-0. Leaders were apolitical, chosen for competence. The work was sometimes uneven, but it was professional. And by the measure that matters most, it succeeded: there has been no catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil.

That tradition has now been abandoned. According to the Cato Institute, nearly three-quarters of those detained by ICE have no criminal conviction. Only 5 percent have been convicted of a violent crime. The administration promised to deport “the worst of the worst.” Instead, ICE has shifted resources away from violent offenders toward mass arrests that generate headlines but do not make Americans safer.

Meanwhile, the department’s attention has drifted from its core mission. Its own threat assessment warns that China, Russia and Iran continue to target our critical infrastructure. The intelligence community has warned that ISIS is attempting high-profile attacks in the West. These threats have not gone away just because we have chosen to focus elsewhere.

The other institution born from Sept. 11 — the Director of National Intelligence — faces a parallel crisis. Tulsi Gabbard was apparently excluded from planning the operation that removed Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. Her appearance this week at an FBI raid on a Georgia elections office raised serious questions about how the nation’s “Joint Commander” over 16 intelligence agencies is spending her time. The solution to both crises is the same: restore bipartisan consensus and apolitical leadership.

Two things must happen. First, the department needs new leadership committed to professional standards and public trust. Second, Congress must come together on reforms. To move past the current funding impasse, Democrats have proposed reasonable steps: body cameras, visible identification, clear rules on the use of force, independent investigations, and reporting requirements for how the agency spends public money. These reforms matter. But the most important thing the department can do to restore trust is to get out of politics.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Restoring DHS: Bipartisan roots and public trust