The office will focus on improving work-life balance and wellness in its 230,000-person workforce, among other things. Douglas Sacha/Getty Images
The Homeland Security Department announced on Tuesday that it is creating a new office to supervise and coordinate health care for both its own workforce and those in its care, saying the streamlined approach would lead to better outcomes for both groups.
DHS has at times struggled to provide care across the far-reaching corners under its purview, but the department said its new Office of Health Security would create a new organizational structure that will better serve all of its constituents. The office will focus on improving work-life balance and wellness in its 230,000-person workforce, as well as medical care for immigrants and others that come into its custody. It will also help the department fulfill its mission in preparing for terrorist attacks and natural disasters, officials said.
“Over the past several years, Americans have faced a series of unprecedented challenges impacting their health security, from the pandemic to natural disasters and more,” said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “Our department must be prepared to adapt to an ever-expanding, dynamic, and complex public health threat landscape. The Office of Health Security will lead our efforts to meet that charge.”
Related articles
Border Patrol Agents Are Cleared of Striking Migrants, But Still Face Discipline for Their Harsh Actions
Biden is Deploying Feds to Rural Areas to Better Connect Communities With Government
Here Are Some Lessons from Homeland Security’s Early COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign
Six Children Died in Border Patrol Care. Democrats in Congress Want to Know Why.
Surprise Inspection of ICE Facility Reveals Nooses in Cells, Improper Discipline
DHS Chief Medical Officer Pritesh Ghandi will lead the office, bringing the department’s medical, workforce health and safety and public health functions all under one roof. The office will aim to increase standardization and accountability, while boosting emergency preparedness and response. Gandhi said the reorganization would ensure health care voices in the department are elevated within its structure.
“We will focus on promoting a healthier and safer workforce, supporting appropriate and timely medical care for those in our care and custody, ensuring a robust health security posture, and being a strong partner and advocate with and for our interagency and community partners.”
Prior to their release or transfer into the custody of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement or another agency, immigrants detained at the border typically spend 48-72 hours in facilities maintained by Customs and Border Protection. CBP is responsible for providing medical care and other services during this time. The agency has come under fire in recent years after several children died while in its custody. In its most recent update on immigrant processing data, CBP said it continues to encounter unusually high numbers of migrants at the border and warned that its workload was particularly elevated as traffickers disregard the health and safety of those they transport.
“We continue to rescue and provide medical assistance to those who are in distress,” CBP said.
Just earlier this month, DHS said its Border Patrol Agents, facing allegations of improper treatment toward immigrants crossing from Mexico into Texas, worked with partners to provide “food, hygiene supplies, COVID-19 testing, and medical care to address the humanitarian needs” of 30,000 migrants in a several-day period. The DHS inspector general has identified several detention facilities with dilapidated facilities that have failed to provide adequate health care to detainees. In one infamous case, a surprise inspection revealed an ICE detention center maintained by the GEO Group had many cells containing nooses fashioned from sheets in a facility with a history of suicides and limited access to medical care.
Earlier this year, DHS announced it was surging employees to the border to handle the higher number of immigrants and in anticipation of the administration ending a pandemic-era policy that limited opportunities for migrants to seek asylum. Among those employees, it said, were medical professionals to care for both those in its custody and its own workforce. The resources, applied with assistance throughout the department as well as partners at the departments of Defense and and Health and Human Services, were expected to be sufficient to provide urgent and specialty care for an unprecedented level of immigration.
DHS’ medical mission has taken on additional responsibilities as CBP and ICE have engaged in testing of those entering the country, as well as offering them vaccines. The department also launched a program to vaccinate its own workforce, partnering with the Veterans Affairs Department to inoculate 58,000 workers. The IG identified several lessons for DHS, including pre-establishing a staffing plan for emergencies and providing more consistent guidance to its components and workforce.
DHS said it drew from those lessons, and others learned throughout the pandemic and the recent significant increases in unaccompanied children and other migrants arriving at the border, in conceptualizing its new health office. It added that it worked closely with Congress in standing up the office and will work with key lawmakers to pass legislation to permanently authorize it. DHS did not respond to an inquiry into how the office would be funded or if the office would receive a boost of resources.
NEXT STORY: Report: Half of the Responders in Uvalde Were Feds but That Didn't Speed Up the Slow Response
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies – Always Active
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link
If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.
Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.
Cookie List
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Functional Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Performance Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Social Media Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Targeting Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Help us tailor content specifically for you:
