It has been 24 years since the World Trade Towers collapsed in flames and smoke and subsequently the Pentagon attack. They were targets of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda on September 11, 2001.
A collective apprehension and vulnerability was felt all over the country. About 2, 976 lives were lost and many were injured. This is not counting the many first-responders who to this date are still suffering from working in toxic conditions.
The 9/11 attack immediately led to the revamping of U.S. laws under the banner of “homeland security.” In October 2001 President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act with the stated purpose to catch and detect terrorists, and in 2002 the Homeland Security Act was enacted establishing the Homeland Security Department (DHS).
Homeland Security fused together more than 20 government agencies. It transferred the duties of the the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to the newly formed U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
DHS stated sole purpose was to protect and secure the United States from terrorist acts. But, by including CBP and ICE under the Homeland Security Department, with a stroke of a pen, immigrants became synonymous with terrorists.
How so? Since the beginning, DHS began using the country’s immigration laws and immigration-related agencies to meet national security objectives.
An emphasis on national security has seeped into U.S. immigration laws, policies, and agencies. Border areas and ports of entry are now framed as potential sources of vulnerability; correspondingly, the federal government has increased its oversight of noncitizens who seek to enter the United States and has imposed restrictions on arriving aliens, including asylum seekers. Immigration systems and policies have cast broad nets designed to catch persons who might engage in terrorist activities, whether now or at some point in the future.
Forward twenty-four years to September 11, 2025, Homeland Security has in fact become a dragnet to hunt immigrants–brutalize and separate them from their families–in their homes, streets, work places, churches and schools. While ICE states that they are targeting so-called criminals who are undocumented, the fact is that everyone who is Latino, works in low paying jobs or speaks Spanish has become their prey, undocumented or U.S. citizen. You get kidnapped first, you prove your legal status later. No one is sage, ICE agents chase, brutalize, and detain women, youth and men alike. Meanwhile, actual domestic terrorists, almost always of the far right kind, are not systematically monitored and prevented from terrorizing and killing people.
The FY 2026 budget proposes $175 billion for the Homeland Security Department. Since the creation of DHS, ICE spending has nearly tripled from $3.3 billion to $9.6 billion in FY 2024.
What’s sad is that taxpayers are paying for the hunting, rounding up, detaining and deporting of immigrants.
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