Abolish DHS
The Department of Homeland Security should have never existed in the first place. It’s time to get rid of it.
Federal police face off with protesters in downtown Portland. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
On the streets of Portland unidentified men in full body armor and military style uniforms pulled people into unmarked cars in a manner that was all too similar to the behavior of authoritarian regimes.
This paramilitary operation in an American city was carried out by the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Rapid Deployment Force which named the action, “Operation Diligent Valor.” Following the outrage in Portland, the agency is now planning on sending 150 of its agents to Chicago. This is after deploying its forces to defend Confederate monuments.
The outrage in Portland is nothing new for the agency. The Department of Homeland Security is a particularly unjust, and rogue, element of a sprawling federal bureaucracy that delivers punishment far better than it delivers welfare. Standing out even amid other punitive institutions, DHS is a Frankensteined agency cobbled together with an insanely wide mission that no entity could possibly take on. On any given day its agents are tasked with:
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