Homeland Security in General Terms

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I gave you your money's worth here. I wanted to avoid cliche's and the typical evil Arab stereotype stuff. I took several different angles (that often do not get sufficient attention) and you can use them as you see fit.
Remember, this is just my view.

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What do you see as the most significant threats to U.S. homeland security? What makes them significant?

The greatest threats to US security are based domestically, some just over the Mexican border. While the spectacular collapse of the Trade Towers on 9-11 received a massive amount of media attention, other, more local groups, often based around racial or ideological motives, are far more prolific in their violence. More significantly, the unification efforts between street gangs, Mexican army units, Mexican gangs and drug lords is a national security problem of the highest order. Their sheer size in the US, about 1 million armed men, is sufficient to cause some alarm.

The DHS does refer to street gangs as "domestic terrorists." The FBI and DHS have both made it clear that drug gangs, some governments and terror organizations are joining forces, with, it should be added, trillions of dollars in assets. The Mexican government is losing its war against these forces. In 2012, the former police chief of Praxedis Guadalupe Guerrero, sought asylum in the US as his police force was slaughtered. Former chief Marisol Valles Garcia, who took over after the murders of her two predecessors, received the body of her immediate predecessor in a cooler on her first day on the job. While Praxedis Guadalupe Guerrero is a small town, it is significant that it is very close to the US border (Leggiere, 2008).

MS-13 is an excellent example. They have about 30,000 well armed soldiers in the US, operating in about 33 states, according to the DHS. Originally from El Salvador, the gang received military training and continues to operate with a strict command and control structure. Their involvement in drugs is well known, and hence, they are not only self-financing, but wealthy. In 2006, the FBI issued a secret (recently declassified) letter showing that both foreign and domestic terror cells use gang members to carry out their crimes. Of course, gangs are a terror organization and therefore, a certain symbiosis makes sense.

Another example is the violent "New Black Panthers" who has openly recruited among the different street gangs for the sake of violent revolution in the US. The Islam Is-Saheeh, a militant Arab organization, recruited many gang members within the California prison system. Many more examples could be cited (FBI, 2006).

Discuss the degree to which the U.S. is prepared to address these threats. (Include a discussion of the specific policies and procedures put in place to prevent, prepare, and respond to these threats).

Discuss why these might work, and discuss why they might not.

While railing against "white supremacists" and "Islamo-fascists," many violent organizations are largely left out of the major media. Public condemnation of Arizona's infamous immigration law obfuscated the issues at hand: the Asrizona mayor was primarily trying to protect US citizens from drug cartels and gangs, major threats to the US, who often use illegal immigrants as foot soldiers. Los Zetas is one of the wealthiest and most violent of the drug gangs. What makes them dangerous, not unlike the MS-13, is that the Mexican government had trained them as an elite anti-narcotics squad. They quickly switched sides. Therefore, this gang, like the MS-13, has military discipline, knowledge of high-tech weaponry and defense systems, and controls billions of dollars in international cocaine trade. 35,000 have been killed in Mexico in Los Zetas' violence against other gangs, civilians and government officials. In 2011, the Mexican government arrested a small army of police officers accused of protecting Los Zetas for a handsome fee (Seper, 2011).

The Zapata County (TX) Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr says that the ...