DHS Moves to Protect US Against Threats from Canada
With exquisitely strange timing, the Department of Homeland Security today unveiled a “Northern Border Strategy” to protect the United States against threats originating in Canada.
The new Trump Administration strategy acknowledges that “the Northern Border remains an area of limited threat in comparison to the U.S. Southern Border.”
“However,” it goes on to say, “the Northern Border is not without safety, security, and resiliency challenges. The most common threat to U.S. public safety along the Northern Border continues to be the bi-directional flow of illicit drugs.”
The strategy also warns of “homegrown violent extremists in Canada who are not included in the U.S. Government’s consolidated terrorist watch list and could therefore enter the United States legally.” (h/t Infodocket.com)
See Northern Border Strategy, Department of Homeland Security, June 12, 2018.
See also Canada-U.S. Relations, Congressional Research Service, updated June 6, 2018.
When a hurricane hits, it’s all hands on deck – that goes for federal data, too. Pulling back from our investments in timely, accurate, and accessible public data will only make us less prepared and put us all at greater risk.
This is bigger than a singular elimination of race and ethnicity questions. It could accelerate the second wave of widespread reductions to demographic data, leaving public health officials with even less information to deliver better health outcomes for all Americans.
Soft law was never meant to be a permanent solution. Treating it as one, and letting the sandcastle stand in for the skyscraper indefinitely, is how we end up with a decade of voluntary commitments and no enforceable accountability to show for it.
FAS has partnered with ICLEI USA to launch the CRI Local Advisory Council.