DHS shifts focus to defending statues
Guarding against terror appears to be less of a mission
WASHINGTON — When he took office, President Donald Trump repurposed the Department of Homeland Security to focus on illegal immigration and border security.
As his reelection campaign turned to a “law and order” theme, the department’s border agents, immigration officers and drones were sent to surveil cities crowded with antiracism protesters.
Then, in the past few weeks, with the commander in chief striking up a divisive defense of statues and monuments, the department redeployed some of its officers again — this time to guard granite and steel sculptures and property in Portland, Oregon, Seattle and Washington.
And on each move, the president has found the warm embrace of Chad Wolf, his acting homeland security secretary. Past homeland security leaders under Trump, like Kirstjen Nielsen and Kevin McAleenan, at times clashed with the White House on policy or were seen as insufficiently zealous in carrying out orders. But Wolf and other current leaders have embraced their assignments with enthusiasm.
That has led former Department of Homeland Security officials from both parties to fear that a department created from the ashes of the 9/11 attacks to guard against terrorism has been transformed into an engine of Trump’s political whims.
“The violent mob is not worthy of even polishing Washington’s statue, let alone desecrating it,” Wolf wrote in an opinion article published July 3 on the pro-Trump website The Federalist after he had deployed forces to guard statues.
Alexei Woltornist, a spokesman for the department, said Wolf was rightly carrying out the president’s wishes.
“American ideals are under attack,” Woltornist said. “President Trump is taking strong action to restore order. Acting Secretary Wolf is committed to using all DHS authorities and resources to implement President Trump’s agenda.”
But the use of homeland security resources as firepower in Trump’s culture wars has prompted former department officials to question the priorities of a federal agency still tasked with responding to national emergencies. Health workers are pleading for protective gear during a pandemic; hurricane season is in full swing; and hackers threaten an extraordinary U.S. election unfolding during the worst public health crisis in a century.
Yet, at least rhetorically, the department is worried about statues, said Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of homeland security in the Obama administration.
“With a pandemic, police violence, hurricanes and an election susceptible to foreign influence,” she said. “Their priorities seem exceptionally misplaced.”
Early in the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security became the center of the anti-immigration agenda Trump rode to victory in 2016, dedicating billions of dollars to construct his border wall and putting in place a web of policies to seal off U.S. borders to refugees and asylum-seekers.
But the pivot to monument protection and the policing of protesters has taken the agency far from its core functions, officials said.
After Trump signed an executive order to prosecute people who damage federal monuments or statues, Wolf readied 2,000 security personnel to guard statues and other federal property from what he described as the “lawlessness sweeping our nation.”
While the president delivered hot-button speeches during the July 4th weekend at Mount Rushmore and in Washington, the Department of Homeland Security dispatched 200 of the 2,000 monument guardians — which included Border Patrol agents, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, Coast Guard personnel and air marshals — to back up the Federal Protective Service, an agency already responsible for protecting federal property, according to agency officials.
The department declined to provide a full list of the protected properties, but it did name the National Mall and the federal courthouse in Portland, as well as Gettysburg National Military Park, where armed right-wing militia members also showed up to “guard” statues.
While the deployment to the federal properties represents a marginal number of homeland security officials, it has become emblematic of the way leadership is directing the agency.
The president has been so pleased that he broke from his remarks during a joint appearance with Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, last week to say, “What a great job you’re doing, Chad.”
The Department of Homeland Security oversees the Federal Emergency Agency, which, in addition to responding to natural disasters, is playing a crucial role in the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The department is also tasked with protecting the United States from computer and terrorism threats. It oversees border and immigration enforcement agencies, and includes the legal immigration agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is preparing to furlough 70% of its workforce in response to a plummeting budget.
But after so many secretaries, Wolf has proved adept at turning Trump’s divisive rhetoric into concrete actions.
“This is exactly what the president has wanted,” said David Lapan, a former spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security in the Trump administration, “putting people in positions that will be completely beholden to him and do whatever he wants, whether or not it’s in the best interests of the agencies they’ve been tasked to lead.”
Suzanne Spaulding, an undersecretary for cybersecurity and critical infrastructure in the Obama administration, said she was concerned for the department’s reputation.
“DHS operates on the basis of trust, and I’m worried,” Spaulding said. “Already many of us were very concerned about sustaining public support for DHS and its broad missions.”
Wolf’s task force to protect “historic monuments, memorials, statues and federal facilities” has already started an inquiry at the House Homeland Security Committee.
“I would like to understand why Federal Protective Service personnel are not adequate to carry out the task of protecting federal property,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the committee’s chairman, wrote in a letter to Wolf.