The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the federal cabinet-level department responsible for public safety. The job of protecting the United States falls on homeland security professionals in numerous disciplines—from emergency response to counter-terrorism to cybersecurity.
While many people associate the DHS with terrorist attacks, it actually shoulders a much broader set of responsibilities. Its stated missions include anti-terrorism, but also immigration, customs, cyber security, border security, and disaster prevention and management.
With more than 240,000 employees, DHS is the third-largest cabinet department, after the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. With approximately 260,000 employees, DHS is the third-largest cabinet department, after the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. For Fiscal Year 2026, the DHS budget request totals approximately $97.97 billion in discretionary funding. In mid-2025, Congress passed a reconciliation package (P.L. 119-21) providing approximately $178 billion in supplemental appropriations (the largest single supplemental in DHS history) primarily directed toward border enforcement and immigration detention. Approximately half of DHS’ budget is dedicated to FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The next largest portion is for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the third largest is for the U.S. Coast Guard.
DHS was created after the September 11, 2001 bombings as a way of improving homeland security by grouping together agencies with security responsibilities. The goal was to improve inter-agency communication. The creation of DHS constituted the most significant government reorganization since the Cold War and the most substantial reorganization of federal agencies since the National Security Act of 1947 (which created the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency).
DHS integrated portions of 22 different agencies, from the Coast Guard and the Secret Service to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. It took sections of the following departments: Treasury, Justice, General Services Administration, Transportation, Agricultures, Health and Human Services, Energy, and Defense. The founding of DHS marked a change in American thought towards threats. Introducing the term “homeland” centers attention on a population that needs to be protected not only against emergencies such as natural disasters but also against local threats.
DHS is composed of three overarching divisions:
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS): This division processes and examines citizenship, residency, and asylum requests from aliens. As of 2025, USCIS reported processing backlogs exceeding 11 million pending cases. Processing times vary significantly by form type, with naturalization applications averaging approximately 6 months.
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP): This is the law enforcement agency that patrols international borders (air, land, and sea), including enforcement of U.S. immigration, customs, and agriculture laws while patrolling at and between all U.S. ports-of-entry. In FY2025, southwest border apprehensions totaled approximately 237,538 (the lowest level since 1970).
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): This law enforcement agency is divided into two bureaus:
- Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which gathers intelligence on national and international criminal activities that threaten the U.S. security. It is responsible for enforcing more than 400 laws
- Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which enforces administrative violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act by detaining and deporting violators of U.S. immigration law. As of January 2026, ICE detention reached record levels with approximately 69,000 individuals detained (the highest in agency history). The agency workforce has more than doubled since early 2025 following significant supplemental appropriations.
What Does the Department of Homeland Security Do?
DHS has a wide variety of functions from border security and immigration to securing cyberspace. The department articulates that its five main goals are focused on:
What Other Organizations Are Included Under DHS?
Some of the other agencies now under the DHS umbrella include:
- Transportation Security Administration (TSA): The TSA is responsible for aviation security (domestic and international; most visibly, by conducting passenger screenings at airports), as well as land and water transportation security. Full REAL ID enforcement began on May 7, 2025, after multiple deadline extensions. Travelers without compliant identification (REAL ID, passport, or military ID) may use the TSA ConfirmID service for a $45 fee effective February 1, 2026. TSA PreCheck enrollment has surpassed 20 million members.
- U.S. Coast Guard (USCG): This is the military service responsible for water-based law enforcement (especially smuggling of drugs and other contraband), maritime security, national defense, and protection of natural resources. In FY2025, the Coast Guard achieved record drug interdiction results, seizing over 510,000 pounds of cocaine (more than three times the typical annual average). The service announced Force Design 2028, a major modernization initiative, with the reconciliation bill providing approximately $14.6 billion for new cutters.
- U.S. Secret Service (USSS): The Secret Service has two missions: an investigative mission, to safeguard the payment and financial systems of the United States from a wide range of financial and electronic-based crime; and a protective mission, to ensure the safety of the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, their immediate families, and foreign heads of state.
- The Secret Service underwent leadership changes following the July 2024 assassination attempt at Butler, Pennsylvania. The agency prevented $2.6 billion in cyber financial crime losses in FY2024 and established the Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit in 2025.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): This is the law enforcement agency tasked with overseeing the federal government’s response to natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and forest fires.
- In 2024, FEMA responded to 90 major disaster declarations (nearly double the annual average). Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused approximately $220 billion in combined damage. The agency distributed over $11 billion in assistance for these storms alone. The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program was cancelled in April 2025, with funds returned to the Disaster Relief Fund. A bipartisan “FEMA Act” has been introduced in Congress to establish FEMA as an independent cabinet-level agency.
National Terrorism Advisory System
In 2011, DHS replaced the old Homeland Security Advisory System with a two-level National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS). The system has two types of advisories: alerts and bulletins. NTAS bulletins permit the Secretary to communicate critical terrorism information that is not necessarily indicative of a specific threat against the United States.
Alerts are issued when there is specific and credible evidence of a terrorist threat against the United States. Alerts have two levels: elevated and imminent. An elevated alert is issued when there is credible information about an attack but only general information about timing or a target. An imminent alert is issued when the threat is specific and approaching in the near term.
DHS announced in 2023 that the annual Homeland Threat Assessment (HTA) now serves as the primary mechanism for communicating terrorism threat levels, with NTAS bulletins reserved for specific or imminent threats.
The 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment identified lone offenders and small groups as the greatest terrorism threat, noting that domestic violent extremists conducted multiple fatal attacks since 2022. ISIS and al-Qa’ida maintain intent to conduct or inspire homeland attacks. The assessment also identified the People’s Republic of China as the greatest economic security threat due to anticompetitive policies and intellectual property theft.
Overview of DHS Cybersecurity
One branch of DHS focuses on cybersecurity. This is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA). CISA’s strategic planning is guided by its 2024-2026 Cybersecurity Strategic Plan, organized around three goals: addressing immediate threats, hardening security terrain, and driving security at scale through “secure by design” principles.
In late 2024 and 2025, the Salt Typhoon intrusion, described as the “worst telecom hack in nation’s history,” compromised at least nine major telecommunications providers including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Chinese state-sponsored actors gained access to law enforcement wiretapping systems and potentially accessed data affecting millions of Americans. Treasury sanctioned entities associated with Salt Typhoon in January 2025. Additional Chinese threat actors (Volt Typhoon, Flax Typhoon, and others) continued operations targeting critical infrastructure throughout 2025.
CISA maintains the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, which grew to 1,484 vulnerabilities by December 2025. The Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA) final rule is expected in 2026, requiring covered entities to report cyber incidents within 72 hours and ransomware payments within 24 hours. Approximately 300,000 entities across all 16 critical infrastructure sectors fall under CIRCIA’s scope.
Federal agencies continue implementing zero trust architecture per OMB requirements, though challenges remain in identity and device management. The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program provides tools to strengthen cybersecurity across federal civilian networks.
Travel and Identity Documents
REAL ID: After nearly two decades of delays since the REAL ID Act of 2005, full enforcement began on May 7, 2025. A standard state driver’s license without the REAL ID star marking is no longer accepted for boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft. Travelers must present a REAL ID-compliant license, U.S. passport, passport card, military ID, or other acceptable identification.
TSA ConfirmID: Effective February 1, 2026, travelers who arrive at a checkpoint without acceptable identification may use TSA ConfirmID for a $45 fee. This service utilizes biometric verification and enhanced background checks to clear passengers.
Passport Notification Act of 2025: Congress passed legislation requiring the State Department to notify U.S. citizens 180 days prior to the expiration of their passport, helping prevent travel disruptions caused by the “six-month validity rule” enforced by many countries.
Key Court Decisions Affecting DHS Operations
Several significant court decisions have affected DHS operations in 2025:
- Trump v. CASA, Inc. (June 2025): The Supreme Court significantly limited federal district courts’ authority to issue nationwide (or “universal”) injunctions. This means court orders stopping federal policies may only apply to the specific plaintiffs in a lawsuit, requiring class action certification for broader relief.
- Trump v. J.G.G. (April 2025): The Supreme Court addressed challenges to the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, ruling that challenges to detention and removal must be filed via habeas corpus petitions in the federal district court where the detainee is held, rather than in centralized lawsuits.
- Birthright Citizenship: The Supreme Court granted certiorari regarding the constitutionality of birthright citizenship executive orders, with a decision expected in mid-2026.
Criticism of the Department of Homeland Security
Excess, waste, and ineffectiveness: DHS has long been dogged by persistent criticism over excessive bureaucracy, waste, ineffectiveness and lack of transparency. The U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (U.S. GAO) High-Risk List continues to include “Strengthening DHS IT Security and Financial Management Functions,” though DHS has made progress, with 73% of outcomes rated “Fully Addressed” or “Mostly Addressed” (up from 47% in 2015). DHS achieved its 12th consecutive unmodified financial audit opinion in November 2024.
However, GAO identified that 463 IT recommendations remain unimplemented, and $262 million spent since 2005 on HR IT modernization yielded “limited results.” The DHS Inspector General identified approximately $12 billion in weaknesses in FEMA’s COVID-19 funding management across 14 audit reports.
Employee morale: DHS ranked 16th of 17 large agencies in the 2024 Best Places to Work survey, though it was the most improved large agency for the second consecutive year. Component rankings varied dramatically, with TSA scoring lowest and ICE showing a 7.3-point improvement. The department experienced significant workforce changes in 2025, with immigration enforcement agencies expanding while CISA and FEMA faced substantial workforce reductions.
Recent Immigration Law Changes
The Laken Riley Act (signed January 29, 2025) mandates detention of noncitizens charged with or convicted of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting and authorizes states to sue over immigration enforcement decisions.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) created new fee structures including asylum application fees, annual asylum maintenance fees, and Form I-94 fees effective January 1, 2026. USCIS now requires electronic payment and no longer accepts paper checks, money orders, or cashier’s checks.
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several countries has been subject to revocation proceedings, with various court injunctions affecting implementation. Immigration enforcement priorities and parole programs have undergone significant changes, with multiple court challenges ongoing.
Should I Speak with an Attorney?
You may interact with DHS for a variety of reasons. For example, you may be applying for a visa or permanent residence; you may be planning to transport goods across international boundaries; you may have a cybersecurity breach in your website server; or you may come across information that suggests there will be an attack on U.S. citizens or companies.
Each of these issues can be quite complex. If you are going to be dealing with the DHS, you should speak to an immigration attorney (depending on the issue) so that your interests can be properly represented.
