The Office will coordinate the executive branch's efforts to detect, prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks within the United States.

Introducing the term "homeland" centers attention on a population that needs to be protected not only against emergencies such as natural disasters but also against diffuse threats from individuals who are non-native to the United States.

Without these protections, employees could be expeditiously reassigned or dismissed on grounds of security, incompetence or insubordination, and DHS would not be required to notify their union representatives.

[5] After establishing the basic structure of DHS and working to integrate its components, Ridge announced his resignation on November 30, 2004, following the re-election of President Bush.

[12] In August 2005, U.S. District judge Rosemary M. Collyer blocked the plan on the grounds that it did not ensure collective-bargaining rights for DHS employees.

[5] In a February 2008 court filing, DHS said that it would no longer pursue the new rules, and that it would abide by the existing civil service labor-management procedures.

[12] A 2017 memo by Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly directed DHS to disregard "age as a basis for determining when to collect biometrics.

"[18] In 2023, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol began using an app which requires asylum seekers to submit biometric information before they enter the country.

[33] Executives The Department of Homeland Security Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD) works to prevent chemical, biological, nuclear, and radiological attacks against the United States.

[37] The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (OIG) provides independent oversight and promotes excellence, integrity, and accountability within DHS.

NTAS bulletins permit the secretary to communicate critical terrorism information that, while not necessarily indicative of a specific threat against the United States, can reach homeland security partners or the public quickly, thereby allowing recipients to implement necessary protective measures.

The Ad Council – which partners with DHS on its Ready.gov campaign – and the consulting company Landor Associates were responsible for graphic design and maintaining heraldic integrity.

The right shield element contains four wave shapes representing the oceans alternating light and dark blue separated by white lines.- DHS June 6, 2003[42] Since its inception, the department's temporary headquarters had been in Washington, D.C.'s Nebraska Avenue Complex, a former naval facility.

[59] The campaign messages have been promoted through television, radio, print, outdoor and web PSAs,[60] as well as brochures, toll-free phone lines and the English and Spanish language websites Ready.gov and Listo.gov.

In 2015, the campaign also launched a series of PSAs to help the whole community,[61] people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs prepare for emergencies, which included open captioning, a certified deaf interpreter and audio descriptions for viewers who are blind or have low vision.

Under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-5, all federal departments were required to adopt the NIMS and to use it in their individual domestic incident management and emergency prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation program and activities.

The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act directs the DHS Secretary to designate employees from throughout the department to staff a Surge Capacity Force (SCF).

The secretary will then authorize FEMA to task and deploy designated personnel from DHS components and other Federal Executive Agencies to respond to extraordinary disasters.

[65] The center works on the Internet's routing infrastructure (the SPRI program) and Domain Name System (DNSSEC), identity theft and other online criminal activity (ITTC), Internet traffic and networks research (PREDICT datasets and the DETER testbed), Department of Defense and HSARPA exercises (Livewire and Determined Promise), and wireless security in cooperation with Canada.

[71] The department was blamed for up to $2 billion of waste and fraud after audits by the Government Accountability Office revealed widespread misuse of government credit cards by DHS employees, with purchases including beer brewing kits, $70,000 of plastic dog booties that were later deemed unusable, boats purchased at double the retail price (many of which later could not be found), and iPods ostensibly for use in "data storage".

Controversy over the program is not new; in March 2007, the Government Accountability Office stated that "the ADVISE tool could misidentify or erroneously associate an individual with undesirable activity such as fraud, crime or terrorism."

[83] David Rittgers of the Cato Institute notes: a long line of fusion center and DHS reports labeling broad swaths of the public as a threat to national security.

[92] High work load resulting from chronic staff shortage, particularly in Customs and Border Protection, has contributed to low morale,[93] as have scandals and intense negative public opinion heightened by immigration policies of the Obama administration.

[95] In 2009, the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) made news for targeting supporters of third party candidates (such as Ron Paul), anti-abortion activists, and conspiracy theorists as potential militia members.

[96] Anti-war activists and Islamic lobby groups were targeted in Texas, drawing criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union.

[97] According to DHS:[98] The Privacy Office has identified a number of risks to privacy presented by the fusion center program: In the Center for Effective Government analysis of 15 federal agencies which receive the most Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, published in 2015 (using 2012 and 2013 data), the Department of Homeland Security earned a D+ by scoring 69 out of a possible 100 points, i.e. did not earn a satisfactory overall grade.

[101]Although dismissed by the DHS as a coincidence, both the use of "88" in a document and the similarity to the slogan's phrasing ("We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children"), drew criticism and controversy from several media outlets.

It even drew rebuke from the department's first secretary Tom Ridge who said, "It would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities".

[107] In December 2020, ACLU filed a lawsuit against the DHS, U.S. CBP and U.S. ICE, seeking the release of their records of purchasing cellphone location data.

[108] The DHS came under fire from pro-Israel politicians in October 2023 for employing Nejwa Ali, who supported Hamas following its deadly terror attack against Israel.