The Observer, March 30, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 22
Free Speech Zone: Department of Homeland Security not so innocuous
How much do you know about the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)? Aside from the fact that it is yet another innocently and deceptively named government bureaucracy, how much do you know about the federal department that eats up $35 billion of taxpayers' money each year?
The fact is that Homeland Security's purpose, goals, and actions remain somewhat of a mystery – even to those whose job it is to keep an eye on the over-extension of government power! But if the glimpses of DHS's actions which have been publicly exposed are indicative of their entire operation, then all Americans should be decidedly concerned with the state of civil liberties in this country.
Take for example Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is the largest investigative arm of DHS, and occupies roughly 1/5 of DHS's budget. It is also the second largest "contributor" to the Joint Terrorism Task Force (second only to the FBI).
ICE was created in 2003 when the law enforcement arm of the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) was merged with the U.S. Customs Service. ICE's vaguely-worded goal is, "identifying criminal activities and eliminating vulnerabilities that pose a threat to our nation's borders, as well as enforcing economic, transportation and infrastructure security." ICE is widely recognized within the government to officially have the most discretionary powers of any federal law enforcement agency, perhaps because its purpose is so vague and its actions so varied.
One look at ICE's website validates this assertion. Instead of chasing down the terrorist threats which are supposedly permeating our society, ICE agents have apparently been conducting the operations which other local, state, and federal agencies were barred by law and ethical inhibition from carrying out. ICE agents have been involved in operations against criminal activity ranging from drug trafficking, to illegal arms sales, to "protection" of corporate intellectual property rights, to immigration enforcement. ICE has been responsible for the recent inexplicable and random arrests throughout the country of handfuls of immigrant laborers whom they refer to as "aliens," which is quaintly ironic considering one of these recent sweeps was in Roswell, New Mexico.
ICE has also placed roughly 400 political asylum seekers - people who flee poverty and persecution to try to come to this country - into the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in the town of Taylor, Texas. Unfortunately for the individuals interned there, about 200 of which are children, there is nothing residential about this former high security state prison. Contrary to the unenthused attempt by ICE to justify the existence of this facility, asylum seekers who have been deported following months-long internments describe the conditions at the facility as abominable. Access to basic health care and educational resources is non-existent and there are reports that minors were forcibly barred from contact with their parents. Land of the free, eh?
Even more disturbingly, ICE operates similar facilities throughout the country for people considered less desirable than asylum seekers. Curiously enough, Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton was awarded a $385 million contract to support these ICE facilities "in case of emergency" – as if we're going to need to arrest thousands of our own citizens on a moment's notice and hold them in secret prisons.
The real issue at hand is that the federal government's power has expanded tremendously since September 11, and the actions of ICE are only one example. If the dedication and honesty of journalists and whistleblowers has been able to reveal the violations of basic human rights at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gharib, or the appalling acts of extraordinary rendition and torture of innocent people, or the extent of wiretapping operations by the National Security Agency (NSA), or the just sickening deception surrounding the invasion of Iraq, just imagine what hasn't been uncovered. And for all that, there has been no diminishment in the threat from foreign terrorism, at all.
If anything, it has increased as the public opinion of the world has turned against the United States. Meanwhile, civil liberties in this country have been essentially erased. If you can be perceived in any way as a threat – especially if you are not a wealthy white citizen – you can be picked up and dragged away to jail, a secret prison, or a foreign torture facility without charge, proof of evidence, warrant, or trial. In such a state of affairs, we need to ask ourselves who the real criminals are.
Pieragastini is a senior History and International Studies major involved with Catalyst: Students for Social Justice, Case-ACLU, and the Philosophy Society.
