Monument’s Stewart Verdery spoke with The Washington Post about the politicization of the Department of Homeland Security and its federal funding in limbo.
Stewart Verdery, who was the first assistant secretary for policy and planning at DHS, from 2003-2005, lamented that nonpartisan functions of the department — which make up the majority of the department’s work — have been negatively affected by the politicization of DHS in recent years.
Under President Joe Biden, Republicans attacked DHS as ineffective on the border, going so far as to impeach then-Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in the House. DHS’s deportation operations under President Barack Obama earned him the nickname “deporter in chief,” leading the agency to be vilified by many on the left. And the agency under Trump’s first term oversaw family separations at the border, one of the most controversial policies of his time in office.
All of that has led to a dramatic shift in the support DHS, which was created on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis in the aftermath of 9/11, initially received from Congress.
“The whole idea of DHS was, it was this nonpartisan, non-controversial way to protect the country, and unfortunately, our immigration wars have now overshadowed that,” Verdery said. “I remember the first couple of years after 9/11, DHS was the easy appropriations bill to pass because it was seen like, of course you have to pass DHS.”