Born after Sept. 11, Homeland Security turns 20 facing new tasks

WASHINGTON >> A federal agency born in the aftermath of Sept. 11 when the primary concern was stopping terrorists from entering the U.S. is changing to meet new challenges, said the secretary of homeland security as he marked its 20-year anniversary during a ceremony Wednesday.

Alejandro Mayorkas highlighted emerging threats such as cybersecurity attacks and lone offenders radicalized online, but the Department of Homeland Security is perhaps most in the spotlight for its role in the country’s immigration debate.

“We have adapted and built capabilities to address the threats and challenges as they have evolved,” Mayorkas told a crowd assembled at the agency’s Washington headquarters. “We were created 20 years ago in the largest restructuring of the federal government since World War II. Now we are a critical part of people’s lives, interacting with the American people on a daily basis more than any other department or agency in the federal government.”

Hundreds of people from across the department — the third largest in the federal government with 260,000 employees — gathered to mark the occasion, among them the heads of some of the various agencies that make up DHS.

Former President George W. Bush appeared in a video message, as did the agency’s first head, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. President Joe Biden thanked DHS employees for their service, saying that because of them the country is safer and stronger.

“We owe you,” he said. The Department of Homeland Security was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It was compiled from 22 federal agencies or departments whose responsibilities ranged from Border Patrol agents on horseback to Federal Emergency Management

Agency personnel inspecting damaged homes after hurricanes to Coast Guard personnel teaching boaters about marine safety.

The creation of the agency was described as no less than the “most significant transformation of the U.S. government in over a half-century” in a June 2002 document laying out Bush’s vision for the agency. The goal, according to the report, was to create a single agency out of the “current confusing patchwork of government agencies” responsible for protecting the country against the threats it was facing then and get ready for problems it would face in the future.