Mayorkas lays out ‘evolved’ US security threats: What to know
DHS head says migration, artificial intelligence, China, and climate change are top priorities for the 20-year-old department. United States Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas has laid out a vision for the department and how it will address evolved threats as it moves into its third decade of existence. Migration, artificial intelligence, China, climate change and domestic extremism were among the top menaces facing the US in the years ahead, Mayorkas said on Friday in an address to the Council on Foreign Relations. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, absorbing into its purview an array of areas including counterterrorism, immigration and disaster response. It has faced regular controversy, including requiring a special registration for Muslim men from certain countries in the early 2000s, and more recently, in 2020, surveilling Black Lives Matter protesters . Still, Mayorkas sought to depict a department that was shifting as the homeland security threat environment has evolved from a primarily focused counterterrorism posture to a complex and diverse landscape of challenges. He spoke a day after the department released its latest review on US homeland security, which it conducts every four years, a congressional requirement. Here are some key takeaways: