Under Trump, immigration enforcement dominates Homeland Security mission

Built on a hill in Southeast Washington, the new $5 billion headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security has a commanding view of the nation’s capital, a sentry post meant to symbolize DHS’s role as protector of the United States. But as thousands of DHS employees relocate to the new campus this month, the agency’s mission is shifting under President Trump. Fixated on the surge in border crossings, Trump has been purging the department’s leadership. The shake-up, critics say, has accelerated DHS’s transformation under Trump from an agency primarily focused on counterterrorism to one defined by its immigration enforcement efforts and increasingly embroiled in some of the White House’s most controversial initiatives.