Former DHS leaders revisit department’s post-9/11 origins

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks led to sweeping changes in how the federal government protects the nation. At the center of those efforts, was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

President George W. Bush created the White House Office of Homeland Security shortly after the attacks, appointing former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge to lead it. Congress later passed the Homeland Security Act in 2002, creating the Department of Homeland Security as a new Cabinet-level department.

DHS began operations in January 2003, with most of its agencies transferred into the department that March. It was the largest government reorganizations in history, bringing together 22 agencies different agencies under one roof.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson served as the first DHS undersecretary for border and transportation security. He told Gray’s Washington Bureau that the possibility of another terrorist attack weighed heavily on officials working to stand up the new department.

“Every day we woke up thinking, is this going to be the day we’re going to get hit again?” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson said establishing DHS also required bringing together agencies that had previously operated in different parts of the federal government.

For example, Customs and the Border Patrol had been housed in separate federal departments. Customs was part of the Treasury Department, while the Border Patrol was part of the Justice Department.

“All of a sudden, two different departments are having to work together seamlessly,” Hutchinson said.

DHS was further tasked with helping address gaps in intelligence sharing exposed by the Sept. 11 attacks.

Michael Chertoff had seen those barriers firsthand from inside the Justice Department. On 9/11, Chertoff was the assistant attorney general in charge of the department’s Criminal Division and later helped lead the federal investigation into the attacks.

After serving as a federal appeals court judge, Chertoff became the nation’s second homeland security secretary in 2005.

“One of the critical things when we first began was the process of removing the walls and creating a much more efficient intelligence-sharing mechanism,” Chertoff said.

Months after Chertoff took office, Hurricane Katrina exposed additional problems with the federal government’s response to catastrophic disasters.

“We had to change the model, and we had to be prepared to have the federal government step in and actually take the leadership role,” Chertoff said.

Congress later overhauled the Federal Emergency Management Agency, now within DHS, strengthening its authority and making changes to the federal government’s approach to disaster preparedness.

In the years since, DHS has taken on a wide-ranging mission that includes counterterrorism, cybersecurity, disaster response, border security and immigration enforcement. Immigration enforcement has become one of the most politically contentious parts of that mission.

“I think the department and their image has suffered because of the enforcement tactics, some of those that have been used,” Hutchinson said.

Speaking to Gray Media, both Hutchinson and Chertoff said they believed the country was safer today with DHS. However, Chertoff pointed to cyberattacks and artificial intelligence as growing national security concerns.

“We’ve avoided a repeat of 9/11,” Chertoff said. “But now we can’t lose sight of the fact there will be other kinds of challenges that are multiplying day by day.”

The legal proceedings stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks also remain unresolved. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the attacks, is scheduled to face a military trial at Guantanamo Bay in June 2028.