Memo demands DHS return to preventing terrorism as Americans face 'heightened threat'

A group of House Democrats is demanding that the Department of Homeland Security return to its core mission of preventing terrorism and a multitude of threats to the American people, citing the “heightened threat” now posed by President Donald Trump’s war against Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.

The group is led by U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), a decorated former Army Ranger who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. They want the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security to compel DHS to return to its “core mission of protecting the American people,” as journalist Scott MacFarlane reported in an exclusive on Wednesday.

Crow, in his letter to the chair and ranking member of the Homeland Security subcommittee, wants a new law that would reverse the effects of President Donald Trump’s executive order, which led to the “diversion of thousands of federal criminal law enforcement officers.”

The diversion of over six thousand Homeland Security Investigations personnel was implemented to fulfill the president’s mandate that those officers be assigned to prioritize reducing unlawful entry into the U.S., and deportations, Crow said, “over all other civil and criminal enforcement priorities.”

HSI, he wrote, describes its work as building “complex cases against the most sophisticated criminal networks that operate globally and pose the greatest threat to our security.”

The division is “responsible for investigating child exploitation, cybercrime, financial crime, human rights violations and war crimes, human trafficking, illicit technology procurement and sanctions violations, narcotics smuggling, terrorism and national security threats, transnational gangs, and weapons trafficking, among other priorities.”

Crow warned that the diversion of HSI personnel “interferes with law enforcement operations and harms U.S. national security.”

He also warned that “the prioritization of civil immigration enforcement,” has disrupted investigations into counterterrorism, child exploitation, sanctions evasion, counterintelligence, human trafficking, and other critical investigations.

The letter comes just as U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) was sworn in as the new Secretary of Homeland Security.

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