Homeland Security’s broken terrorist prevention program needs to end

For nearly a decade, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded grants annually to government and community organizations. working on “Preventing individuals from becoming radicalized into violence.” And for nearly a decade, the department has been unable to show, let alone measure, that these “prevention” efforts are working. There wasn’t.

In December, after Congress requested evidence of the effectiveness of the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program, DHS released the following report: report Could not generate anything.

outside the studyMeanwhile, the $20 million annual program do nothing For national security, they promote junk science, discriminate against communities of color, and sometimes fund activities that have more to do with shaping societal views than preventing terrorism. However, DHS again asked Congress for $20 million to fund the program.

This harmful effort should be halted when lawmakers vote on the department’s budget in the coming days.

To understand why a program should be deprecated, consider the following sample. Subsidy From the past 3 years. These include funding for the University of Central Oklahoma. Develop A “tolerance training” program for preschool and elementary school children to reduce “prejudice and discrimination” in their homes and communities. The purpose of Columbia University’s program is to tackle “Othering” in middle and high school students, or treating certain groups as different and often inferior to others.

The three projects hope to use video games to engage young people. A plan is fosterer Another thing about “prosocial behavior” Promote “Self-regulation and interpersonal dynamics” in competitive gaming teams.third will Develop The game puts players in the roles of government, media, and industry to identify and combat misinformation.

Whatever the merits of such programs that seek to shape the social attitudes of young people and children, their connection to terrorism prevention is only tenuous.

The subsidy program also raises other concerns.Following years of criticism that it relies too much on law enforcement, the department announced A new model that emphasizes “mental health” and “alternatives to investigation and prosecution.”

However, the recent Brennan Center analysis More than half of the 40 projects funded in 2022 involved law enforcement, and the program’s approach employs mental health professionals to help law enforcement identify suspects. I discovered that there are many things that can happen.

The program has long targeted underrepresented communities and perspectives. Initially, under the Obama administration, targeted Almost exclusively Muslim Americans appear to believe that Islamic religious practice itself presages violence.Under the Trump administration, grant recipients primarily functioned provide Law enforcement information about American Muslims, Black Lives Matter activists, and LGBTQ people.

Joe Biden as presidential candidate promised Exit the program. Instead, his administration gave it a new name – Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships — and announced which security agencies the main focus will shift to. phone The most serious terrorist threat facing our country today is white supremacist violence.still Only 2 DHS projects funded in FY2022less than a quarter of the most recent publicly available information specifically targets that threat.

A more serious problem with DHS’s program is Dependent It is based on the false premise that those who commit mass violence can be reliably identified in advance while on the path to ‘radicalization’. It assumes that certain “behaviors” and “risk factors” indicate that an individual is likely to commit violence. This assumption is false and counterproductive.

In reality, these supposed red flags are: living alonehave experienced childhood trauma, use drugsExpressing particular religious or political views or displaying a tendency toward “thrill-seeking” behavior is true for millions of Americans, the vast majority of whom continue to engage in acts of violence and terrorism. It is not.

Broad and ambiguous metrics allow police and the public to inject bias into the process, resulting in people frequently bearing the burden of national security overreach, such as Muslims in the United States after September 11, 2001. This results in minority communities being targeted.

But these are among the “warning signs” touted by grant recipients cited by the Department of Homeland Security in its report. December report requested by Congress. Lawmakers asked for evidence of the program’s effectiveness based on “peer-reviewed research,” but DHS primarily cited government-produced reports and a single independent report. study It debunked that claim and found that many of the indicators used by the program “actually have relatively small relationships with radicalization outcomes.”

Congress also directed DHS to explain how grant recipients protect the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of the people they serve. The DHS program office emphasizes that it is working with the department’s Office of Civil Rights to issue criteria for grantees. However, these standards and how they are enforced are not explained. As I wrote in detailed report DHS oversight has broken down, with the department’s Civil Rights Office frequently sidelined And the advisor was ignored.

It appears that DHS has never even attempted to measure the effectiveness of its violence prevention efforts in actually preventing violence.Instead, it is Measure performance Use indicators of busy work, such as the number of participants in your classes or how often your team meets. These metrics only show that grantees are doing something, not that their work is effective.

For years, DHS’ targeted violence and terrorism prevention grants have failed to provide security value while wasting resources and fostering bias and unfounded suspicion. Congress has given the program a significant overhaul, but the time has come to repeal it.

spencer reynolds He is a former senior intelligence advisor in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He currently serves as a senior advisor in the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.