Legal Approaches to Counterterrorism

You are a program analyst with the Department of Homeland Security, assigned to DHS Headquarters. You work in the Office of the Secretary, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL). You are responsible for developing guidance and policy to support civil rights compliance and providing recommendations to address complex civil rights issues. You also provide a full range of advice, training, support, outreach, and complaint investigation related to civil rights concerns connected with the access to DHS-supported or conducted programs by individuals with limited English proficiency, or to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 287(g) program, along with other federally conducted and supported activities.

Your superior has assigned you an unusual task in anticipation of an in-house training and development program. This office is clearly focused on civil rights, but you have been asked to play devil’s advocate for a day. Your office deals with complaints of civil rights violations, investigating complaints brought by individuals with limited English proficiency. Your task is to present a memo that will be distributed to everyone at the training as required reading.

Your memo will be on the topic of: How might the DHS look and function if civil rights and civil liberties were not valued?

Your answer to the following question can assist you in developing your memo: If the DHS employed a true public-order approach to combating terrorism, what would they do differently right now?

Assignment Guidelines

• Use your course materials, the library, and relevant Internet research options to research what the Office of the Secretary, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) does, and how its operations affect homeland security policy decisions.
• Address the following in 750–1,000 words:
  • What functions does the Office of the Secretary, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) perform? Explain.
    • This is the starting point for this assignment. Once you understand what the office does, then you can start to work on identifying how the DHS might change its function if civil rights and civil liberties were no longer a requirement.
  • Do the activities and operations of the Office of the Secretary, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) impact homeland security policy decisions? Why or why not? Explain in detail.
  • How might the DHS change its function if civil rights and civil liberties were no longer a requirement? Explain in detail.
• Be sure to reference all sources using APA style.