homeland security

If the United States intends to address the lure of authoritarianism domestically, it should devote deliberate attention to making the American people safer at home.

On March 10, the House Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee heard testimony from state health officials and private experts on states’ readiness for and responses to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The sun was setting over the southern Mexican highway that hugs the Guatemala-Mexico border. Any tourists sitting along the road might have taken a photo or commented to one another on the picturesque rural backdrop. Yet it barely registered for the four Hondurans with whom I was traveling. “You pass through so many beautiful places as you move through Mexico,” José said to me as he waved toward the sunset, “but you are usually too tired or miserable to enjoy it.”

Local opposition to federal immigration enforcement is often treated as an ideological issue, with fights over sanctuary cities breaking down along familiar political lines. But setting politics aside, several local law enforcement agencies worry that they cannot lawfully comply with one important aspect of federal immigration enforcement—the immigration detainer.