The Department of Homeland Security is massive, and its mission poorly understood by the general public. Critics point to it as a prime example of big government inefficiency. It has few vocal supporters. Its successes mostly remain secret. Yet any failure, no matter how small, is front page news. By the numbers, DHS (230,000 employees) is not the country’s largest federal agency. It is actually third, behind the Department of Defense (700,000) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (280,000). Nevertheless, DHS’s authority extends into far more areas of American public life than any other federal agency. Established by Congress in November 2002 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, DHS took over parts of nine other federal departments as diverse in responsibilities as Justice, Defense, Treasury, Transportation, and Agriculture. It swallowed some of these whole (FEMA), and sliced and diced others (INS from Justice into three separate agencies) to form 23 individual reporting centers all now answering to Secretary Janet Napolitano ’83, one of David Martin’s first students. Her department’s mission? Guard the borders, patrol U.S. waters, secure the nation’s computer networks, keep drugs and WMDs off the streets, prevent pandemics, manage disaster relief, protect the President, and ensure these efforts don’t violate civil rights and civil liberties in the process. It’s a big job. We have pulled back the curtain covering DHS by interviewing a sample of alumni and faculty who lead and perform the work. While their views are strictly their own and do not reflect the official positions of DHS or the Federal Government, they do give us a glimpse of the organization from the inside, away from the distractions of politics and partisanship. None of them goes into specifics, of course, but their professionalism, strategic clarity, and experience indicate the nation’s security is in very good hands.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) The son of a British mother and an American father, John Morton ’94, Assistant Secretary of ICE, grew up in this country with a personal understanding of its immigrant tradition. His mother holds a green card. “She’s very proud of where she came from,” says Morton, “and I’m very proud that I have an immigrant background. I’m half British in blood terms, but I grew up as an American.
16 | UVA Lawyer • Spring • 2010
I love being an American. It’s a country of innovation and a country that respects the rule of law.” At the same time, Morton respects other nations and their ways of doing things. “I don’t have to look any further than my mother to know that other countries can do things in their own way quite well.” Soon after receiving his UVA undergraduate degree, Morton joined the Peace Corps to gain more international experience. He got that, and more. “The Peace Corps instilled in me a sense of service,” he recalls. “I wanted to continue that when I went to the Law School. I took every course David Martin offered and some taught by Richard Lillich. They gave me a broad national security, immigration, and international perspective.” Further, Morton feels this is a special moment in time for the Department of Homeland Security because of the number of Law School graduates in important positions. “Many of us first came to know each other through our experiences at the Law School,” he says. “Peter [Vincent ’95] and I now have the great pleasure to be working with David Martin again and I find myself running a major law enforcement agency. My boss is Janet Napolitano. We’ve come a long way since those days at the University of Virginia but the seeds were all sown there.” Morton is a “rule-oriented person,” which means a great deal in the application and execution of public law. “I think it’s is extremely important that our border laws be pursued in a compassionate, thoughtful, and balanced way, but good government is about balancing competing interests and trying to get to the right answer for the greater good. I enjoy trying to balance those interests in an environment where finding that right answer is the driving force.” That makes ICE a very good fit for Morton. He has a strong interest and expertise in immigration enforcement, but an equally strong background in customs and national security. “It’s why this job is so fascinating. It is extremely broad.” ICE’s jurisdiction encompasses a wide variety of high profile, transnational crime involving international child labor offenses, sex tourism, and pornography. ICE also investigates export control violations, weapons and technology espionage, drug smuggling, alien smuggling, money laundering, sex trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking, and counterfeiting. On the national security front, ICE helps keep out of the country “bad actors” by screening visa applications in 12 of its 44 offices around the world. It is also the second largest contributor to the Joint Terrorism Task Force led by the FBI. All of these efforts are vital to national security and our
AP Photo / Matt York
A Department as Big as its Responsibilities