Homeland Security's Ridge: Doing A Great Job That Should Not Exist
Diplomad
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge has announced his resignation effective NLT February 1.
We Diplomads have had many dealings with DHS, and with Secretary Ridge and his staff. Our impression of him was always positive: he struck us as an extremely dedicated and competent politician and public servant with his country's best interests at heart, and a genuinely decent person. He did a terrific job of managing perhaps the most difficult asssignment any Cabinet member has been given in decades -- probably even more difficult than the creation of the Department of Defense under Truman.
He and DHS were constantly in the media's crosshairs: e.g., not enough security, too much security; panicking the public with too much information, denying the public the information they had a "right" to have, etc. He came under fire from all sides as he tried to meld 22 very disparate agencies -- including the historically troubled Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) -- with nearly 200,000 employees into a single Department. While fighting the intense battles one would expect when trying to change the way entrenched bureaucracies work, Ridge also was expected to protect the American public from a wide range of threats. He did an admirable job carrying out the difficult mandate he received and he deserves heaps of praise. We wish him all the best, and hope he continues to serve the public in some capacity.
Unfortunately, he did a job that should never have exsited.
There is no reason to have a DHS except for the Congressional rush post 9/11 to show that it was doing "something." President Bush's initial opposition to the creation of DHS was correct; unfortunately, he caved to the pressure. The creation of DHS is not unlike the current rush to "reform" the intel agencies and create a Spy Czar. All too often the demand to do "something" results in redesigning the wiring diagram, moving boxes, and creating new jobs with new titles. At times that is needed, rarely, however, is that the "solution."
The real red hot problem with homeland security was not that we had 22 separate agencies in need of immediate melding -- if needed, unification could have been done calmly over several years.
The biggest problem had a simple, relatively cheap solution: Get a dozen smart IT geeks into a room and have them work out a way for these agencies to share a single data base. Each agency had its own data base, often not available to the others. Even with the creation of DHS and the demand for greater coordination of efforts, the data base issue continues as a major problem within the government: e.g., State and DHS to this day do not readily share information -- leading to the assignment of DHS agents to several Embassies so that DHS can control its own data -- and the FBI is notorious for not sharing anything with anybody.
One of the most maligned agencies of the 22 now absorbed into DHS was INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), now married to US Customs into an agency with the cool name of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). We have worked with INS agents at home and abroad and have found them hard-working dedicated professionals doing a job nobody in America -- besides Michelle Malkin -- wants done. Businesses don't want control of immigration as they draw cheap workers from among the illegals; teacher unions want illegal alien kids enrolled in schools, thus keeping many schools open; a whole swath of liberal advocacy groups don't want strict controls as they seek to promote totally open immigration; the Democratic Party gets laws passed making it possible for illegal aliens to vote. And (true confession) The Diplomad's mother wants a cheap maid.
As any FSO who denied a visa or any INS agent who seized an illegal can tell you, often you're just asking for trouble if try to keep somebody out of the US. The same Congressman who gets on TV to pontificate about the need to control our borders and enforce our laws, will come down on you like a ton of bricks for denying a visa or deporting the brother/cousin/girlfriend of a constituent. Ladies and gentlemen, we got the INS that we wanted.
Neither right nor left in the US is interested in dealing with the issue of illegal immigration. Conservatives and liberals join together to oppose a national identity card that could swiftly end an enormous chunk of the illegal alien problem. Tom Ridge couldn't overcome that; we doubt the next DHS Secretary will either, unless we as a nation decide that we genuinely want something done about illegal aliens.
Don't hold your breath . .
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