My last column was published on March 12 and focused on the Department of Justice (DOJ), whose secretary, Pam Bondi, has since been fired – primarily for her handling of the Epstein files, but also for failing to deliver on threats of vengeance against the president’s enemies. Earlier in March, the secretary of the unfunded Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, met the same fate for a series of controversies involving an advertising campaign, ICE, and CBP. Like Bondi, she mistook loyalty to the president for job security.

Over the past months, we’ve examined several cabinet-level departments and their performance against mission. Our examination of operational components inside the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) focused primarily on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In the coming months, we’ll be looking closely at the cabinet-level Departments of Defense and State – given the recent declarations of military action in South America and Iran – and then look at other key DHS operational components like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

As we move closer to the February 13 deadline for a Senate vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), it is tempting to view incremental changes by DHS prior to the vote as the direct result of citizen surveillance efforts related to two tragedies in Minneapolis, or the sizeable weekend crowds in so many cities protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in general, or the polls that indicate a majority of Americans think that ICE has gone too far. It’s important to remember that DHS contains not only ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), but also the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the Coast Guard. So effecting any form of change in a budget document is challenging with such considerations.

I met my first civilian bully in the small Iowa town where I grew up. A group of us who lived within blocks of one another were outside most of the year, doing everything from playing school in an old coal shed at our house, to afternoons spent at the swimming pool or at our small public library. We also played softball and tag football regularly, and traded comic books. Several of us also tracked Hit Parade sheet music and learned it, pretending to offer concerts in the park. Pretty innocuous, except for the neighborhood bully who lurked on the sidelines or interrupted our activities or our walks by threatening us and impeding our activities. For about a year, I recall that my reaction after trying to ignore him was to run inside my house and cower until he picked on someone else. At that point, I decided to look up all the words he called me and let him know he needed to stop or I would report him to both of our parents. Because he had no real power over me, I was able to back him off. I learned my first lesson about standing up to bullies.