The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security,roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terrorism,border security,immigration and customs,cyber security,and disaster prevention and management.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of the U.S. people and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Improving the health,safety,and well-being of America". Before the separate federal Department of Education was created in 1979,it was called the Department of Health,Education,and Welfare (HEW).
The United States secretary of homeland security is the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security,the federal department tasked with ensuring public safety in the United States. The secretary is a member of the Cabinet of the United States. The position was created by the Homeland Security Act following the attacks of September 11,2001.
In the United States,a special agent is an official title used to refer to certain investigators or detectives of federal,military,tribal,or state agencies who primarily serve in criminal investigatory positions. Additionally,some special agents operate in criminal intelligence,counterterrorism,or counterintelligence-based roles as well,with one or all of these roles occasionally taking precedence over criminal investigatory tasks.
In the United States,Office of Inspector General (OIG) is a generic term for the oversight division of a federal or state agency aimed at preventing inefficient or unlawful operations within their parent agency. Such offices are attached to many federal executive departments,independent federal agencies,as well as state and local governments. Each office includes an inspector general and employees charged with identifying,auditing,and investigating fraud,waste,abuse,embezzlement and mismanagement of any kind within the executive department.
The Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers serves as an interagency law enforcement training body for 105 United States government federal law enforcement agencies. The stated mission of FLETC is to "...train those who protect our homeland". Through the Rural Policing Institute (RPI) and the Office of State and Local Training,it provides tuition-free and low-cost training to state,local,campus and tribal law enforcement agencies.
Tracy A. Henke is a former government official who held high-level positions in the United States Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security during the George W. Bush administration. Henke resigned as Executive Director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness at the Department of Homeland Security in October 2006,and began working in the private sector. Henke became the Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Executive Director of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center St. Louis (AMICSTL) in St. Louis,Missouri in 2023.
The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General was established along with the Department of Homeland Security itself in 2002 by the Homeland Security Act. Its website describes its mission as "supervis[ing] independent audits,investigations,and inspections of the programs and operations of DHS,and recommends ways for DHS to carry out its responsibilities in the most effective,efficient,and economical manner possible."
The Inspector General of the Department of State heads the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of State and is responsible for detecting and investigating waste,fraud,abuse,and mismanagement in the United States Department of State. In the department,the Inspector General has a rank equivalent to an Assistant Secretary of State.
Chad Fredrick Wolf is an American former government official and lobbyist who was named the acting United States secretary of homeland security in November 2019. His appointment was ruled unlawful in November 2020. Wolf was also the under secretary of homeland security for strategy,policy,and plans from 2019 to 2021.
Alejandro Nicolas Mayorkas is an American attorney and government official who is the 7th United States Secretary of Homeland Security,serving since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party,Mayorkas previously served as director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services from 2009 to 2013,and the 6th Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2016.
Elizabeth Neumann is an American former homeland security official. In the Trump administration she served from February 2017 to April 2020 as a senior advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to DHS Secretary John Kelly and Acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke,and as DHS Assistant Secretary for Threat Prevention and Security Policy to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen,Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan,and Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf. She served on the Homeland Security Council staff in the George W. Bush administration starting in 2003.
Kevin Kealoha McAleenan is an American attorney and government official who unlawfully served as the acting United States secretary of homeland security from April to November 2019.
Kirstjen Michele Nielsen is an American attorney who served as United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019. She is a former principal White House deputy chief of staff to President Donald Trump,and was chief of staff to John F. Kelly during his tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security.
James M. Murray is an American former law enforcement officer who served as the 26th director of the United States Secret Service from 2019 to 2022.
Joseph Vincent Cuffari is an American government administrator who has been the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since 2019. He previously held positions in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. Cuffari was also a policy advisor to Arizona Governors Jan Brewer and Doug Ducey.
Stephen James Akard is a former American diplomat who was the United States director of the Office of Foreign Missions,a division of the Department of State,and beginning in May 2020 also the acting inspector general of the department after President Donald Trump fired his predecessor,Steve Linick. Akard resigned less than three months later to return to the private sector,according to a department spokeswoman.
In April and May 2020,United States President Donald Trump dismissed the inspectors general (IGs) of five cabinet departments in the space of six weeks. The inspectors general removed were Michael K. Atkinson,Intelligence,on April 3;Glenn Fine (acting),Defense,April 7;Christi Grimm (acting),Health and Human Services,May 1;Mitch Behm (acting),Transportation,May 15;and Steve Linick,State,May 15. In four of the cases the announcement was made late on a Friday night in a classic Friday news dump. In several cases the fired IGs had taken an action which Trump disliked,so that the dismissals were widely described as retaliation. In two other cases,questions were raised about whether the dismissals related to ongoing IG investigations into the conduct of the cabinet secretary in charge of that department. The cumulative firings were often described as a "purge" or as a "war on watchdogs".
Beginning in 2019,multiple appointments of acting officials in the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were questioned,on the basis of whether the appointments were legal under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 and the Homeland Security Act of 2002. After the departure of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in April 2019,the Trump administration did not formally nominate a new secretary to be confirmed by the Senate,relying on acting postings.
Brian Murphy was the acting United States Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis from March 2018 until August 2,2020.
