Reflection on Homeland Security Legal and Ethical Issues

Homeland security is a countrywide operation involving all levels of governance (federal, statewide, municipal, regional, and tribal); the social and commercial sectors; and the entire society, including every individual. The overall homeland security concept involves defending the American’s manner of civilization and is incorporated with the National Security Plan objectives, which encompass tolerance for international principles at local and international levels (Morag, 2018). As a result, ethical, legal, and societal considerations must be considered. The ethical ideals and behaviors of individuals engaged and the field’s norms constitute the cornerstone of all surveillance systems. Whereas individuals constitute a portion of the answer, individuals are equally the source of the majority of the problems. Appropriate judgment, secrecy, security, infringement, theft & abuse, accountability, proprietary information, and disruption are just a few of the ethical and legal issues that the organization has faced (Alperen, 2017). It is simple to exaggerate these themes by using true horrific experiences; it is extremely challenging to address the fundamental ethical difficulties.

Reflection on Homeland Security Legal and Ethical Issues

When addressing homeland security legislation and policy, it’s vital to bring up a watershed moment in the United States history — September 11. Most individuals will recall wherever they were and whatever these people were doing on that date. Following that event, the initial reaction would be to ground planes, and as a result, most excursions were cancelled till the end of the month. Structural reforms were instantly visible and have developed since September 11 in response to attacks, operations, and intel. The condition for the journeys in late September 2001 was to arrive at the airports three hours beforehand. Most people skipped their flight home since many did not reach the airports until two hours before departure. The airport authority modifications were only the beginning of some of the unethical issues in homeland security.

These ethical concerns indicate that homeland security staff members lack a standardized framework for making effective and acceptable ethical choices. It is proven that morals are crucial to homeland security operations, based on fundamental ethical theory(Bisogno, 2017). Moral reasoning, normative ethics, pragmatism, decision-making methods, and ideas shared throughout the homeland security industry are intellectual foundations. In addition, the US Customs and Border Protection is among the department of homeland security’s numerous operations and supporting elements. The purpose of this Force is to prohibit terrorist migration, narcotics smugglers, and modern slavery at national boundaries. Furthermore, CBP stated that interactions at the southern boundary began to rise in 2020. In 2021, about two hundred thousand people tried to cross over the southern frontier, a 71 per cent rise above the earlier months. Border Patrol agents are working to eradicate terrorist infiltration, people trafficking, and other unlawful operations, but the increased number of frontier interactions proves their work extremely difficult.

Cyberterrorism rises and falls as cybercriminals adapt their tactics, and security specialists adapt with improved preventative strategies. Cybercrimes may be astonishingly damaging to the country’s facilities, as demonstrated by the malware assault on Colonial Pipeline(General, 2018). Public institutions face stiff rivalry regarding certified cybersecurity specialists since there is a global lack of experienced individuals. Regarding safeguarding state institutions from cyberattacks, the Office of Inspector General cited the department of homeland security’s general utilization of information systems – and ensuring this can serve key activities – as a concern. Handling IT and developing methods for diverse technologies may be difficult for major companies such as Homeland Security, and doing this when assisting state activities raises the tensions and broadens the repercussions. The September 11 incidences of terrorist attacks spurred among the most significant realignments of the national govt since World War II, exposing a variety of flaws with the US homeland security infrastructure (Alperen, 2017). These regulations are evaluated and enacted as part of a continual attempt to apprehend a proper balancing in protecting America and maintaining that our foreign trade and transportation, which are important boosters of our growth, are not excessively constrained.

Split governmental structures and the unofficial procedures of its security forces have proven troublesome for cooperative activities and surveillance activities in the United States. With this understanding of ethical difficulties, individuals may also evaluate certain important current narratives of US cross-agency counterterrorism that emphasize organizational politics or culture and demonstrate how these viewpoints might result in unreasonable policy proposals. An emphasis on the deeply ingrained patterns and organizations of the United States makes one more sceptical about the possibilities for genuine organizational transformation. Furthermore, the creation of an agency must never be viewed as a substitution for the appropriate release of a national homeland security plan to lead the agency’s complicated mission accomplishment(General, 2018). Ethical duties and obligations across the organization are causing a rethinking and changing of historical roles and functions. Still, these alterations are usually evaluated gradually and temporary, with no overall structure or standards to drive the approach.

Conclusion

Reliability is crucial to homeland security’s character and efficacy as the country’s borders protector. It is the foundation of governance and effectiveness not just for a large business like Homeland Security but especially for people. Widely mentioned hurdles to the agency’s cooperation would include an absence of techniques for communicating sensitive data between the homeland departments, an absence of National guidelines on interdisciplinary communication and cooperation, and uncertainty within Federal, Government, and native investigators regarding command structure, regulatory obstacles and varying authority systems. Consistent involvement in cooperative activities and comprehensive collaboration and reaction plans can assist in establishing ties and connections(Bisogno, 2017). Creating a set of data backup procedures and individuals is critical for providing for various possibilities in a situation preparation.

References

Alperen, M. J. (2017). Foundations of homeland security: Law and policy. John Wiley & Sons.

Bisogno, R. (2017). Problem solving in homeland security and creating policy conditions for enhanced civic engagement: An examination of crowdsourcing models. Naval Postgraduate School Monterey United States.

General, A. I. (2018). Department of Homeland Security. The Removal of a.

Morag, N. (2018). Comparative homeland security: Global lessons. John Wiley & Sons.